f 


K 


LETTEE  TO 


A  FEIEND, 


ET 


JOHN  G.  PALFREY, 

A  REPRESENTATIVE  FROM  MASSACHUSETTS  IN  THE  THIRTIETH  CONGRESS. 


“  Let  all  the  ends  thou  aim’st  at  be  thy  Country’s, 
Thy  God’s,  and  Truth’s.” 


CAMBRIDGE: 

METCALF  AND  COMPANY, 

PRINTERS  TO  THE  UNIVERSITY. 


•A 


1850. 


The  following  was  all  in  type,  and  awaiting  only  the  last  proof  correc¬ 
tions  to  be  struck  off,  on  the  29th  of  July,  when  I  learned  that,  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  the  death  of  Mr.  King,  and  the  transfer  of  Mr.  Winthrop  to  the 
Senate,  the  Governor  would  order  elections  in  the  First  and  Second  Districts, 
and  might  include  the  Fourth.  As  my  position  referred  to  in  the  second 
paragraph  of  the  Letter  was  thus  liable  to  be  changed,  (as  in  fact  has  proved 
to  be  the  case,)  I  have  suspended  the  printing  to  the  present  time.  The  tenth 
trial  for  an  election  in  this  District  takes  place  to-day.  The  sheets  will  go  to 
the  printer  before  night,  for  the  press. 

August  \9th. 


I 


LETTER. 


Cambridge^  July  20i/t,  1850. 

My  Dear  Friend  :  — 

I  WAS  much  gratified  by  the  manner  in  which  you  spoke  of  my  course  in 
political  life,  when  we  met  this  week  at  the  College  Commencement,  the  first 
time  for  several  years.  Others  of  my  former  pupils  and  friends,  who,  like 
you  and  myself,  have  belonged  to  the  Whig  party,  took  the  same  occasion  to 
express  their  sympathy  and  continued  confidence,  in  highly  satisfactory  terms. 

The  week  before  last,  an  official  publication  was  made  of  the  returns  of 
votes  given  at  the  last  trial  for  a  Representative  in  Congress  from  the  Fourth 
Congressional  District.  As  it  is  understood  that  the  Governor  has  this  week 
left  town  without  appointing  another  day  for  an  election,  I  infer  that  it  is 
not  his  intention  to  do  so  till  the  autumn,  when  it  is  altogether  uncertain 
whether  I  shall  be  a  candidate.  Accordingly,  I  feel  at  liberty  to  break  the 
silence  which  I  have  hitherto  thought  proper  to  maintain  in  respect  to  some  of 
the  strictures  to  which  you  referred  as  having  been  passed  upon  my  conduct. 

I  desire  to  do  so  for  two  reasons.  I  am  not  insensible  to  the  disapprobation 
of  many  who  have  misunderstood,  or  even  of  some  who  have  maligned  me  ; 
and  I  venture  to  hope  that,  in  the  satisfaction  of  their  success,  those  who  have 
opposed  my  re(ilection  will  be  inclined  to  judge  of  my  representations  with 
somewhat  more  of  candor,  and  that  passion  and  prejudice  will  have  less 
sway  than  it  would  be  reasonable  to  expect  during  an  exciting  contest.  At 
all  events,  I  have  children,  to  whom  my  good  name  is  dear,  and  to  whom  it 
will  continue  to  be  so  when  I  shall  be  no  longer  here  to  defend  it.  I  would 
have  them  prepared  to  show,  that,  as  far  as  the  matters  in  question  are  con¬ 
cerned,  they  have  no  occasion  to  blush  for  their  parentage. 

I  may  name  yet  another  motive,  which  you  will  fully  appreciate.  I  have 
been  a  Christian  minister.  Numbers,  yet  living,  listened  to  me,  and  gave 
me  their  affectionate  confidence,  while,  year  after  year,  I  endeavoured  to  en¬ 
force  the  principles  of  a  lofty  Christian  morality.  I  will  not  have  it  allowed, 
without  a  protest,  that  I  was  utterly  unworthy  of  that  confidence  so  gratefully 
remembered;  I  will  not,  if  I  can  help  it,  allow  any  good  influence  that  in 
former  times  I  may  have  exerted  over  their  minds  to  be  annulled  by  tbe 
belief, —  inculcated  in  the  assaults  that  have  been  made  upon  me,  —  that  he 
who  urged  on  them  the  claims  of  truth  and  righteousness  has  ceased  to 
“  reck  his  own  rede.” 

I  shall  make  no  apology  for  egotism  in  what  I  am  about  to  write.  I  must 
speak  constantly  of  myself,  for  niy  object  is  self-vindication. 

I  must  begin  a  h)ng  way  back,  though  not  a  step  further  back  than  iny 
humble  history  has  been  ransacked  by  the  newspaper  writers  for  matter  with 


4 


which  to  upbraid  me.  Taking  advantage  of  the  unfavorable  feeling  which 
exists  in  our  community  respecting  a  withdrawal  from  the  clerical  pro¬ 
fession,  and  presuming  that,  in  a  matter  so  delicate  and  private,  I  should 
be  unwilling  to  make  explanations,  they  have  not  shrunk  from  using  the 
grossest  freedom  in  their  inquisition  into  my  earlier  course. 

In  the  year  1831,  after  thirteen  years’  service  in  the  parochial  ministry  in 
Boston,  I  accepted  a  Professorship  in  the  Theological  Department  of  the  Uni¬ 
versity,  and  removed  to  Cambridge.  My  partial  friends  in  the  religious  so¬ 
ciety  with  which  I  had  been  connected  objected  to  my  taking  that  step,  and 
urged  that  it  was  not  wise.  But  no  doubt  of  its  being  taken  under  a  disin¬ 
terested  sense  of  duty  ever  reached  me  from  any  quarter.  My  position  had 
been  every  thing  that  heart  could  desire,  and  never  more  attractive,  to  say  the 
least,  than  when  I  relinquished  it.  Separating  myself  from  relatives  and 
friends,  I  left  it  for  a  place,  —  to  be  retained,  as  I  supposed,  for  the  rest  of  my 
life,  —  where  I  was  to  have  more  labor,  less  leisure,  less  compensation,  and 
social  position  and  advantages  certainly  not  superior  to  what  I  left  behind. 
Except  that  I  was  not  in  ill  health,  I  took  the  step  under  the  same  circum¬ 
stances  as  the  same  step  had  been  taken  just  before  by  the  late  Rev.  Dr. 
Ware,  jr.,  and  I  never  heard  that  he  was  charged  with  being  prompted  by 
political,  or  any  other  worldly  ambition. 

After  four  years,  with  a  view  to  add  to  my  pecuniary  means,  which  proved 
unequal  to  the  wants  of  an  increased  family,  I  became  editor  of  the  North 
American  Review.  I  am  ashamed  to  write  of  matters  of  such  purely  per¬ 
sonal  concern,  but  the  impudent  and  false  constructions  put  upon  them  by 
those  who  have  felt  justified  in  criticizing  so  distant  a  period  of  my  life,  com¬ 
pel  me  to  the  unwelcome  task.  At  the  end  of  four  years  more,  namely,  in 
1839,  my  situation  was  this :  —  During  five  days  and  a  half  of  every  week  of 
the  College  terms,  I  was  doing  harder  and  more  exhausting  work,  in  the 
lecture-room,  and  in  preparation  for  it,  than  I  have  ever  done  in  any  other 
way.  I  was  one  of  the  three  preachers  in  the  University  Chapel ;  and  during 
my  turn  of  duty,  in  what  remained  of  Saturday  after  the  week’s  lecturing 
was  done,  I  had  to  prepare  for  the  religious  service  which  I  conducted  on 
Sunday.  As  Dean  (or  executive  officer)  of  the  Theological  Faculty,  I  was 
charged  with  affairs  of  administration  in  that  department  of  the  University. 
As  editor  of  the  North  American  Review,  I  was  under  obligation  to  lay  be¬ 
fore  the  public  two  hundred  and  fifty  or  more  closely  printed  octavo  pages 
every  quarter.  I  had  in  press  a  work,  of  some  extent  and  labor,  on  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures.  And  (imprudently,  perhaps,  but  for  apparently  sufficient  cause) 
I  had  engaged  to  deliver  and  print  courses  of  lectures  for  the  Lowell  Institute, 
which  accordingly  I  did  deliver  in  1839-40,  and  the  two  following  winters. 

These  things  united  made  a  task  too  great  for  the  health  and  strength  of 
most  men.  At  all  events,  it  was  too  great  for  mine.  Plain  indications 
showed  that  I  must  have  some  relief,  or  be  crushed,  body  and  mind.  My 
permanent  engagements  were  the  professorship  in  the  University,  and  the 
editorship  of  the  Preview.  In  the  Review  was  embarked  a  large  capital  (for 
me)  ;  and  to  dissolve  my  connection  with  it,  until  there  should  be  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  an  advantageous  sale,  was  not  to  be  thought  of,  because  this  would 
have  been  to  put  it  out  of  my  powder  to  reimburse  the  friends  to  whom  I  was 
indebted  for  the  investment.  I  did  not  desire  to  resign  my  professorship. 
Nor  did  I  yet  contemplate  such  a  movement.  My  plan  was  to  obtain  such 


5 


relief  as  seemed  absolutely  necessary,  and  no  more,  by  a  dispensation  from  a 
portion  of  its  duties.  A  recent  event  had  put  it  in  my  power  to  relinquish 
a  part  of  my  income  from  that  source.  I  accordingly  made  a  communication 
to  the  Corporation  of  the  College,  proposing  to  give  up  the  less  important  part 
of  my  duties,  (and  with  them  three  eighth-parts  of  my  salary,)  and  submitting 
a  plan  by  which  I  thought  they  might  be  executed  at  less  expense  to  the  in¬ 
stitution,  and  without  derangement  of  the  system  of  the  department.  The 
Corporation,  after  conference  with  me  by  a  committee,  and  consultation 
among  themselves,  acceded  to  my  proposal,  and  passed  a  vote  accordingly. 
A  copy  was  transmitted  to  me,  and  the  transaction  was  complete. 

A  few  days  passed,  and  the  President  called  upon  me  to  give  me  informa¬ 
tion,  which,  as  he  very  properly  said,  he  thought  I  ought  to  possess.  He  told 
me  that,  at  a  subsequent  meeting  of  the  Corporation,  more  full  than  those  at 
which  my  proposal  had  been  considered  and  acted  on,  dissatisfaction  had 
been  expressed  with  the  arrangement  on  the  part  of  members  who  had  been 
absent,  on  grounds  having  reference  to  the  general  policy  of  the  College,  and 
the  inexpediency  of  precedents  of  this  nature.  His  communication  was 
limited  to  giving  me  this  information,  without  any  suggestion  that  further 
action  was  expected  from  me,  or  was  contemplated  by  the  Corporation,  in  the 
way  of  a  reversal  of  what  had  taken  place.  But  it  cost  little  reflection  to  show 
me  that  I  could  not  with  propriety  take  advantage  of  a  vote  which  it  ap¬ 
peared  would  not  have  been  passed  in  a  full  board  against  such  opinions  of  a 
minority.  It  was  equally  clear  that  I  must  not  think  of  going  on  as  I  had 
done.  Accordingly,  on  a  revision  of  the  whole  subject,  I  announced  my  in¬ 
tention  to  resign  at  the  end  of  the  academical  year.  This  was  done  with 
perfect  good  feeling  on  both  sides,  of  which  feeling  towards  myself  the  most 
flattering  evidence  was  afforded  in  documents  placed  in  my  hands  by  the 
authorities  of  the  College.  I  did  not  remain  in  Cambridge,  where  I  had  lived 
eight  years,  as,  according  to  the  theory  lately  broached  of  my  movements,  I 
should  have  done,  to  pursue  objects  of  political  ambition.  I  removed  in  the 
autumn  to  Boston,  advertising  my  house  in  Cambridge  to  let,  w'hich  was 
effected  in  the  summer  of  the  next  year.  —  And  this  is  the  whole  story  of  my 
separation  from  the  College,  an  event  unexpected  and  undesired  by  me,  and 
connected  with  no  ulterior  views  beyond  the  preservation  of  my  life  and 
health.  My  object  in  it  has  been  preposterously  misrepresented.  There  is  not 
a  shadow  of  proof,  nor  have  I  any  recollection  or  belief,  that  I  had  then  any 
more  thought  of  a  course  of  life  like  that  into  which  unexpected  circumstances 
liave  since  led  me,  than  I  now  have  of  becoming  some  day  Emperor  of  China. 

Having  lived  in  Bo.ston  two  years,  engaged  in  my  studies,  in  the  manage¬ 
ment  of  the  North  American  Review,  and  in  the  preparation  and  publication 
of  my  Lectures  before  the  Lowell  Institute,  not  writing  a  line  for  any  news- 
pa[)er,  nor  seeking  political  associations  of  any  kind,  nor  thinking  of  j)olitics 
more  than  every  tolerably  well-informed  person,  with  whatever  pursuits,  may 
be  supposed  to  do,  I  was  elected  by  my  fellow-citizens  of  that  place  to  rep¬ 
resent  them  in  the  General  Court  of  the  Commonwealth,  for  the  years  1842 
and  1843.  It  has  been  said  and  printed,  that,  by  way  of  introducing  myself 
to  political  life,  I  became  a  frequent  attendant  at  the  j)rimary  meetings,  afler 
my  removal  to  Boston.  To  the  best  of  my  knowledge  and  belief,  I  never 
was  in  a  primary  meeting  till  afler  I  had  taken  my  seat  as  Representative  itj  the 
General  Court.  To  llie  best  of  my  knowledge  and  beliel',  I  never  was  in  a 


6 


primary  meeting  but  three  times  in  my  life ;  namely,  on  the  6th  of  January, 
and  the  31st  of  August,  1842,  at  Boston,  and  on  the  21st  of  September,  1847, 
at  Cambridge.  To  the  best  of  my  knowledge  and  belief,  no  solicitations  — 
not  so  much  as  any  hint  —  from  me  led  to  my  nomination  for  the  General 
Court.  If  any  one  supposes  that  he  knows  any  thing  to  the  contrary  of  this, 
I  desire  him  to  make  it  public. 

Though  I  took  a  part  in  other  measures,  —  for  the  responsibility  of  a  Repre¬ 
sentative  was  upon  me,  —  my  regular  business  in  the  House  was  that  of 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Education,  a  place  assigned  to  me  without  the 
slightest  motion  (and,  I  will  add,  without  the  slightest  expectation)  of  my  own. 
It  was  a  place,  however,  I  suppose,  not  unsuitable  for  a  person  of  my  habits, 
as  it  has  been  repeatedly  filled  by  clergymen  before  and  since.  And  it  pro¬ 
cured  me  a  pleasure  of  the  choicest  kind.  With  others  of  that  committee,  I 
was  subsequently  placed  on  a  special  joint  committee,  to  whom  were  referred 
the  subject  of  the  continuance  of  Normal  Schools  (the  first  provision  for 
only  three  years  having  then  expired),  and  a  proposal  for  the  establishment  of 
School  District  Libraries.  The  committee  determined  that  Resolves  should  be 
reported  to  continue  the  Normal  Schools,  and  establish  the  Libraries;  that 
they  should  be  introduced  in  the  House,  and  that  I  should  prepare  and  take 
charge  of  them  in  that  body.  Under  circumstances  of  no  little  difficulty, 
these  were  carried  through,  and  became  a  law  on  the  3d  day  of  March, 
1842.  I  look  back  upon  that  day  as  the  date  of  the  most  useful  public  ser¬ 
vice  I  ever  rendered,  excepting  only  the  day  of  my  first  vote  in  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States. 

In  1843,  by  reason  of  straitened  circumstances,  (the  cause  of  which  there  is 
no  need  to  explain,  but  which  were  not  such  then,  or  at  any  other  time,  as  to 
occasion  to  any  person  the  loss  of  a  cent  by  me,)  I  disposed  of  the  property, 
and  relinquished  the  editorship,  of  the  North  American  Review,  which,  as 
things  stood,  was  inadequate  to  my  needs,  and  looked  about  for  some  more 
advantageous  employment  of  my  time.  Should  it  be  asked  why,  released 
from  other  engagements,  I  did  not  seek  to  resume  my  former  profession,  there 
are  those  who  will  understand  why  one  should  be  reluctant  to  return  to  that 
profession,  when  relinquished,  as  a  resource  for  a  livelihood.  From  time  to 
time,  as  opportunity  has  occurred,  I  have  freely  given  other  reasons,  in  my 
judgment  of  great  weight,  and  am  always  ready  to  do  so,  to  any  one  who 
has  a  curiosity  upon  the  subject.  I  shall  probably  be  thought  to  have  already 
thrown  off  reserve  quite  sufficiently  as  to  these  personal  matters,  without 
going  further  now  on  this  point.  I  will  but  add,  that  since  retiring  from  the 
University,  in  1839, 1  have  published  three  octavo  volumes  on  important  sub¬ 
jects  in  theology  ;  and  I  may  hereafter  lay  before  the  public  some  further 
evidence  that  I  have  not  forsaken  the  studies  proper  to  the  clerical  profession, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  have  devoted  to  them  more  time  than  the  routine  of 
parochial  services  would  have  allowed  me  to  command. 

In  the  spring  of  1843,  the  lease  of  my  house  in  Cambridge  expired.  As  the 
reasons  which  had  caused  me  to  remove  to  Boston  still  remained  in  force,  I 
tried  through  the  whole  summer  to  find  another  tenant,  by  advertising  and  in 
all  the  other  usual  ways;  but  without  success.  For  this  simple  reason,  be¬ 
cause  I  could  not  afford  to  hire  one  house  while  I  owned  another  which 
was  vacant,  I  moved  back  to  Cambridge  in  November,  1843.  But  the 
newspaper  construction  of  the  proceeding  (somewhat  unmindful  of  chronolog- 


7 


ical  congruities)  was  different :  —  “  He  saw  that  our  District  was  unoccupied 
ground.  A  Whig,  a  true,  honest,  patriotic  Whig,  Benjamin  Thompson, 

had  been  elected  as  our  Representative  in  Congress . It  was  well  known 

that  he  was  anxious  to  return  to  private  life . The  Secretary  moved 

from  the  city,”  4&c.  —  Mr.  Thompson  declined  a  reelection  in  1846.  He 
was  first  chosen  in  1844.  And  “  the  Secretary,”  who  was  not  yet  Secre¬ 
tary,  moved  from  Boston  to  Cambridge  in  1843. 

The  administration  of  the  State  government  was  changed  by  the  result  of 
the  fall  election  of  1843,  and  it  was  understood  that  there  would  be  a  change 
in  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth.  My  desire  to  be  considered 
a  candidate  having  been  made  known  to  my  friends,  I  w^as  elected  to  that 
office  by  the  General  Court  in  the  following  January.  I  hope  that  in  the 
four  years  I  held  it  the  Commonwealth  received  no  detriment  from  me. 

The  duties  of  the  Secretary’s  office,  of  so  different  a  description  from  the 
employment  to  which  I  had  been  accustomed,  may  well  be  supposed  to  have 
been  found  at  first  somewhat  irksome  and  distasteful.  But  use  and  method 
made  them  easy,  and  not  unpleasant.  If  not  very  interesting  or  intellectual, 
they  were  at  all  events  not  at  all  exhausting ;  and  by  method  and  diligence 
I  found  myself  able  to  perform  them  with  exactness  within  such  a  daily  allow¬ 
ance  of  time  as  to  leave  considerable  leisure  for  more  congenial  pursuits. 
The  emolument,  joined  to  my  private  resources,  was  enough  to  enable  me  to 
live  with  frugal  comfort,  and  educate  my  children.  In  short,  I  was  living 
very  satisfactorily,  and  desired  nothing  different.  But  so  it  was  not  ordered. 

Though,  while  a  Representative  in  the  General  Court,  I  had  been  sent  as  a 
delegate  from  Boston  to  the  Whig  State  Convention  in  September,  1842,  and 
though  I  made  two  or  three  speeches  in  the  Presidential  contest  of  1844  (the 
annexation  of  Texas  being  already  a  pending  question),  it  was  in  the  autumn 
of  1845  that  I  first  became  connected  in  any  material  way  with  political  trans¬ 
actions.  If  I  mistake  not,  that  was  a  time  when  Christian  man  or  Christian 
minister  might  well  think  that  it  did  not  misbecome  him  to  take  an  interest  in 
public  affairs.  For  my  part,  I  am  most  confidently  of  the  opinion  that  the 
cause  of  truth  and  righteousness,  of  God  and  of  man,  demanded  quite  as  much 
active  service  at  that  time  in  the  popular  assemblies  as  in  the  pulpits  of  the  land. 

In  October  of  that  year,  at  a  Convention  called  in  Cambridge  of  opponents 
to  the  annexation  of  Texas  as  a  Slave  State,  I  was  appointed,  in  my  absence 
and  without  my  knowledge  (but  that  is  quite  immaterial),  a  member  of  a 
committee  there  raised,  called  the  Massachusetts  Texas  Committee,  charged 
with  inviting  anew  the  attention  of  the  people  of  the  Commonwealth  to  that 
flagrant  meditated  wrong,  and  obtaining  petitions  to  Congress  with  a  view 
to  arresting  the  further  progress  of  the  scheme.  My  principal  agency  as  a 
member  of  this  committee  was  in  the  preparation  of  a  circular  letter  to  the 
clergy  of  the  Commonwealth,  invoking  their  aid  in  behalf  of  the  contem¬ 
plated  object.  I  was  also  a  member  of  a  sub-committee  of  three  persons  to 
solicit  funds  for  circulating  information  and  appeals  on  the  subject,  and  col¬ 
lecting  the  names  of  petitioners.  The  result  of  the  action  of  this  committee 
was,  tliat  petitions  with  forty  or  fifty  thousand  signatures  from  Massachusetts 
were  forwarded  to  Washington  at  the  meeting  of  the  Twenty-ninth  Congress. 

In  the  summer  of  1846,  my  friend,  Mr.  Charles  F.  Adams,  having  assumed 
the  editorship  of  the  “  Boston  Whig,”  I  contributed  to  that  journal  a  series  of 
twenty-six  numbers,  entitled  “  Papers  on  the  Slave  Power.”  They  attracted 

I 


8 


some  attention,  and  were  presently  after  collected  in  a  pamphlet,  which 
passed  through  three  editions. 

On  the  following  September  16th,  the  chairman  of  the  Whig  Committee  of 
the  Fourth  Congressional  District  called  upon  me,  and  requested  my  permission 
to  allow  my  name  to  go  before  the  District  Convention,  soon  to  meet,  as  a  can¬ 
didate  for  nomination  as  successor  in  the  House  of  Representatives  to  Mr, 
Thompson,  who  had  made  known  his  intention  to  withdraw.  I  expressed 
my  disinclination  to  accept  the  proposal,  and  stated  some  of  my  reasons.  At 
his  request,  however,  I  consented  to  withhold  a  reply  for  a  few  days.  On  the 
21st  day  of  that  month  I  wrote  to  him,  positively  declining  the  proposal. 
In  this  determination  I  never  wavered.  Representations  were  made  to  me, 
in  conversation  and  writing,  by  leading  gentlemen  of  the  party,  with  a  view 
to  change  my  purpose  ;  but  my  answers  were  uniform  and  decided.  These 
applications  were  continued  up  to  the  evening  before  the  Convention,  when 
the  gentleman  who  at  its  meeting  was  chosen  President  visited  me  at  my 
house  to  urge  a  change  of  my  resolution,  and  received  the  same  reply. 

I  did  not  desire  the  place.  I  was  resolved  not  to  be  a  candidate  for  it. 
Various  reasons  were  conclusive  with  my  own  mind,  some  of  which  I  men¬ 
tioned  from  time  to  time.  And  what  added  to  their  force  at  that  particular 
juncture,  and  made  me  absolutely  averse  to  the  step,  was  the  hostility  which, 
in  some  hitherto  friendly  quarters,  had  been  excited  against  me  by  the  general 
tenor,  and  particularly  by  some  passages,  of  my  recent  publication  on  the 
“  Slave  Power,”  and  which  there  was  plain  reason  to  apprehend  would  as¬ 
sume  a  character  still  more  painful,  should  I  consent  to  become  a  candidate 
for  the  place  in  question.* 

Notwithstanding  these  unequivocal  and  constantly  repeated  denials, 
known  to  every  one  who  knew  any  thing  about  the  matter,  the  Convention 
nominated  me  as  the  candidate  of  its  party.  The  state  of  things  was  then 
changed  ;  such  an  expression,  under  such  circumstances,  of  confidence  and  of 
desire  for  my  services,  had  its  weight;  and,  after  much  and  long  hesitation,  I 
yielded  to  the  representations  which  were  made  to  me,  that,  as  a  matter  of 
public  duty,  I  was  bound  to  recede  from  my  position.  I  am  glad  that  I  did 
not  then  know  all  the  personal  consequences  which  were  involved  in  that 
decision.  I  fear  that  I  might  not  have  had  spirit  to  encounter  them ;  and 
then  some  approbation  of  my  conscience,  which  I  now  possess,  for  duty  since 
honestly  performed,  would  have  been  lost. 

*  One  little  matter  which  gave  great  offence  was,  that,  in  commenting  on  the  course  of  a 
distinguished  gentleman  of  the  Whig  party,  I  had  said,  in  the  off-hand  style  of  an  ephemeral 
newspaper  communication,  that  it  was  “  hard  to  make  a  statesman  out  of  a  calico-merchant.” 
I  regret  the  expression,  for  it  was  not  necessary  to  my  argument,  and  it  provoked  a  clannish 
wrath,  that  dreams  not  of  being  appeased,  after  having,  like  a  troubled  sea,  cast  up  much  mire 
and  dirt.  The  paper  was  hastily  written,  and  sent  to  the  press  with  little  time  for  expurgation. 
In  the  pamphlet  reprint,  I  suppressed  the  offensive  words.  But,  after  all,  what  is  there  in  them 
to  raise  such  a  transport  of  displeasure  ?  All  callings  in  private  life,  it  is  likely,  have  their 
tendencies  —  some  of  one  kind,  some  of  another  —  unfavorable  to  the  wisest  and  loftiest  politi- 
f  cal  action.  A  large  proportion  of  our  political  men  are  lawyers  by  profession,  from  which  it 

might  be  inferred  to  be  a  prevailing  sentiment  among  us,  that  a  lawyer’s  training  is  eminently 
what  a  statesman  needs.  But  Burke,  who  knew  something  about  statesmanship,  ventured  to 
leave  on  record  a  different  opinion.  How  many  thousand  times  has  it  been  said,  in  State 
Street  and  elsewhere,  —  how  many  thousand  times,  even,  in  reference  to  my  humble  self,  — 
that  “  parsons  make  poor  politicians.”  The  remark  may  be  flippant ;  —  I  incline  to  think  it  is ; 
—  but  would  it  be  dignified  for  the  cloth  to  be  fiercely  ruffled  by  it  from  Barnstable  to  Berkshire  ? 


9 


At  the  first  trial,  in  November,  there  was  no  choice,  the  votes  of  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  and  Liberty  parties  outnumbering  those  of  my  supporters.  I  was  elect¬ 
ed  in  the  following  month,  a  large  number  of  the  Liberty  party  having 
withdrawn  their  opposition. 

I  was  a  delegate  from  Cambridge  to  the  Whig  State  Convention  held  at 
Springfield,  September  29,  1847.  Part  of  the  resolutions  reported  for  the 
adoption  of  that  body,  by  a  committee  raised  for  the  purpose,  related  to  the 
course  proper  to  be  pursued  by  the  Whigs  of  Massachusetts  in  respect  to  the 
Presidential  election,  then  a  year  distant.  One  of  them  was  as  follows:  — 

“  Resolved^  —  That,  if  this  course  of  policy  shall  be  rejected,  and  the  war 
shall  be  prosecuted  to  the  final  subjugation  or  dismemberment  of  Mexico,  the 
Whigs  of  Massachusetts  now  declare,  and  put  this  declaration  of  their  pur¬ 
pose  on  record,  —  that  Massachusetts  will  never  consent  that  Mexican  terri¬ 
tory,  however  acquired,  shall  become  a  part  of  the  American  Union,  unless 
on  the  unalterable  condition,  that  ‘  there  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involun¬ 
tary  servitude  therein,  otherwise  than  in  the  punishment  of  crime.’  ” 

Desiring  to  reduce  this  to  something  practical,  I  moved  to  amend  the  series 
by  adding  the  following  :  — 

“  Resolved,  —  That  the  Whigs  of  Massachusetts  will  support  no  men  for  the 
offices  of  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  but  such  as  are 
known  by  their  acts,  or  declared  opinions,  to  be  opposed  to  the  extension  of 
slavery." 

This  is  what  has  been  often  called  in  the  newspapers,  “  Mr.  Palfrey’s  reso¬ 
lution  of  ‘  No  union  with  slaveholders.’  ” 

The  amendment  was  opposed  by  Mr.  Winthrop.  It  was  defended  by  my¬ 
self,  and  more  ably  by  others ;  among  others,  very  eloquently  by  Mr.  William 
^  Dwight,  of  Springfield,  who  said,  “You  cannot  vote  for  a  candidate  not 
known  to  be  opposed  to  slavery  extension  ;  it  would  he  guilt."  *  The  vote  was 
taken  after  nightfall,  when  many  of  the  western  delegates  had  dispersed  to 
their  homes,  and  when  it  was  difficult  to  count  the  members  as  they  stood  in 
their  places,  on  a  level  floor,  in  a  dimly-lighted  room.  The  majority  was  de¬ 
clared  to  be  against  my  amendment.  Many  said  afterwards,  —  and  among 
them  some  who  belonged  to  the  reported  majority,  —  that  if  the  count  could 
have  been  made  more  accurately,  the  decision  would  have  been  reversed. t 
The  Whig  County  Conventions  met  presently  afterwards,  and  in  the  greater 
number  of  them,  —  including  (if  my  memory  serves  me)  nearly,  if  not  all, 
the  larger  counties,  except  Suffolk,  —  this  resolution  was  adopted  either  in 
terms  or  in  tenor.  It  expressed  what  was  then  (namel}’’,  in  the  autumn  of 
1847)  the  sense  of  the  fVliirr  party  of  Massachusetts. 

On  the  4th  evening  of  the  following  December,  I  arrived  at  Washington,  to 
take  my  seat  in  the  Thirtieth  Congress  of  the  United  States,  which  was  to 
meet  on  the  6th.  Mr.  Giddings  of  Ohio  was  waiting  to  receive  me,  and  ac- 

*  I  quote  from  memory  ;  but  words  so  uttered  are  not  easily  forgotten. 

t  On  looking  at  a  newspiper  fde,  to  verify  the  language  of  the  first  resolve  quoted  above, 
the  following  remark  upon  the  resolve  proposed  by  me  strikes  my  eye.  It  is  taken 
from  the  “Springfield  Ilepublican,”  a  Whig  paper  issued  on  the  spot,  and  one  of  the  most  in¬ 
fluential  in  the  Commonwealth  :  —  “  We  would  have  adopted  it  [Mr.  P ’s  amendment]  at  once, 
as  every  way  proper,  and  in  the  most  perfiict  keeping  with  the  resolutions  as  originally  pre¬ 
sented.  And  we  have  the  most  perfect  assurance  that  such  was,  and  is,  the  general  sentiment 
of  the  Convention.” 


2 


10 


companied  me  to  my  lodging.  He  informed  me  that,  Mr.  Vinton  having  de¬ 
clined  the  nomination  for  Speaker,  Mr.  Winthrop  had  been  selected  for  that 
place  by  the  Whig  caucus,  by  a  majority  of  votes  over  Mr.  Caleb  B.  Smith, 
of  Indiana.  I  asked  him  what  was  known  of  Mr.  Winthrop’s  intended 
course  in  the  appointment  of  committees.  He  said  he  knew  nothing  material 
upon  the  subject.  I  expressed  briefly  my  anxiety  in  relation  to  it ;  the  con¬ 
versation  passed  to  other  topics;  and  we  separated  without  so  much  as  a 
reference  on  either  part,  so  far  as  I  remember,  to  any  course  of  action  to  be 
pursued.  * 

I  reflected  duly  on  the  subject,  and  determined  on  my  course  ;  and  the  next 
day,  after  going  to  church  (the  day  was  Sunday,  a  circumstance  which  some 
who  have  not  regarded  my  proceeding  as  a  work  of  mercy  have  not  failed  to 
make  busy  use  of),  I  sketched  a  note  to  IMr.  Winthrop,  which  I  sent,  having 
first  taken  it  to  show  to  Mr.  Giddings,  and  made  one  or  two  slight  alterations 
at  his  suggestion.  Of  that  note,  presently  afterwards  (with  perfect  pro¬ 
priety)  published  by  Mr.  Winthrop,  the  following  is  a  copy,  namely  :  — 

Coleman  s,  Washington,  Dec.  ^th,  1847. 

Dear  Sir,  — 

It  would  give  me  pleasure  to  aid,  by  my  vote,  in  placing  you  in  the  chair 
of  the  House  of  Representatives ;  but  I  have  no  personal  hopes  or  fears 
whatever  to  dictate  my  course  in  the  matter,  and  the  great  consideration  for 
me  must  be  that  of  the  policy  which  the  Speaker  will  impress  on  the  action 
of  the  House. 

Not  to  trouble  you  with  suggestions  as  to  subordinate  points,  there  are 
some  leading  questions  on  which  it  may  be  presumed  you  have  a  settled  pur¬ 
pose.  May  I  respectfully  inquire,  whether,  if  elected  Speaker,  it  is  your  in¬ 
tention, —  % 

So  to  constitute  the  Committees  on  Foreign  Relations,  and  of  Ways  and 
Means,  as  to  arrest  the  existing  war. 

So  to  constitute  the  Committee  on  the  Territories,  as  to  obstruct  the  legal 
establishment  of  slavery  within  any  territory. 

So  to  constitute  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary,  as  to  favor  the  repeal  of 
the  law  of  February  12th,  1793,  which  denies  trial  by  jury  to  persons  charged 
with  being  slaves;  to  give  a  fair  and  favorable  consideration  to  the  question  of 
the  repeal  of  those  Acts  of  Congress  which  now  sustain  slavery  in  this  Dis¬ 
trict;  and  to  further  such  measures  as  may  be  within  the  power  of  Congress 
to  remedy  the  grievances  of  which  Massachusetts  complains  at  the  hands  of 
South  Carolina  in  respect  to  the  treatment  of  her  citizens. 

I  should  feel  much  obliged  to  you  for  a  reply  at  your  early  convenience, 
and  I  should  be  happy  to  be  permitted  to  communicate  it,  or  its  substance,  to 
some  gentlemen  who  entertain  similar  views  to  mine  on  this  class  of  questions. 

I  am,  dear  Sir,  with  great  personal  esteem. 

Your  friend  and  servant. 


*  One  of  the  Boston  editors  published  that  it  was  within  his  knowledge  that  my  opposition 
to  Mr.  Winthrop  was  arranged  between  me  and  my  friends  before  I  left  home.  I  met  him 
soon  after  at  Washington,  and  told  him  how  clearly  he  was  mistaken.  But  what  good  did  that 
do?  —  He  could  not  have  known  how  I  should  proceed.  No  human  being  knew.  I  did  not 
know  myself.  I  had  not  spoken  to  any  person  of  any  intention  of  mine  in  respect  to  the 
choice  of  Speaker,  nor  had  any  one  given  me  advice,  opinion,  or  (as  far  as  I  remember)  so 
much  as  hint  upon  the  subject. 


11 


That  night,  after  eleven  o’clock,  I  received  the  following  reply :  — 

Washington,  Coleman's  Hotel,  December  loth,  1847. 

Dear  Sir  :  — 

Your  letter  of  to-day  has  this  moment  been  handed  to  me. 

I  am  greatly  obliged  by  the  disposition  you  express  “  to  aid  in  placing  me 
in  the  chair  of  the  House  of  Representatives.”  But  I  must  be  perfectly  can¬ 
did  in  saying  to  you,  that  if  I  am  to  occupy  that  chair  I  must  go  into  it  without 
pledges  of  any  sort. 

I  have  not  sought  that  place.  I  have  solicited  no  man’s  vote.  At  a 
meeting  of  the  Whig  members  of  the  House,  last  evening  (at  which,  how¬ 
ever,  I  believe,  you  were  not  present),  I  was  formally  nominated  as  the  Whig 
candidate  for  Speaker,  and  I  have  accepted  the  nomination. 

But  I  have  uniformly  said  to  all  who  have  inquired  of  me,  that  my  policy 
in  organizing  the  House  must  be  sought  for  in  my  general  conduct  and  char¬ 
acter  as  a  public  man. 

I  have  been  for  seven  years  a  member  of  Congress  from  our  common 
State  of  Massachusetts.  My  votes  are  on  record.  My  speeches  are  in  print* 
If  they  have  not  been  such  as  to  inspire  confidence  in  my  course,  nothing  that 
I  could  get  up  for  the  occasion,  in  the  shape  of  pledges  or  declarations  of  pur¬ 
pose,  ought  to  do  so. 

Still  less  could  I  feel  it  consistent  with  my  own  honor,  after  having  re¬ 
ceived  and  accepted  a  general  nomination,  and  just  on  the  eve  of  the  election, 
to  frame  answers  to  specific  questions,  like  those  which  you  have  proposed, 
to  be  shown  to  a  few  gentlemen,  as  you  suggest,  and  to  be  withheld  from 
the  great  body  of  the  Whigs. 

Deeply,  therefore,  as  I  should  regret  to  lose  the  distinction  which  the 
Whigs  in  Congress  have  offered  to  me,  and  through  me  to  New  England, 
for  want  of  the  aid  of  a  Massachusetts  vote,  I  must  yet  respectfully  decline 
any  more  direct  reply  to  the  interrogatories  which  your  letter  contains. 

I  remain,  w’ith  every  sentiment  of  personal  esteem. 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

ROBERT  C.  WINTHROP.* 

Hon.  J.  G.  Palfrey,  &c.,  &c. 

Three  trials  for  the  election  of  Speaker  took  place  at  the  opening  of  the 
House  the  next  morning.  I  voted  for  Mr.  Hudson  in  all.  On  the  third,  Mr. 

.w.  * 

Tompkins  of  Mississippi,  and  Mr.  Holmes  of  South  Carolina,  who  had  before 
voted  for  other  candidates,  withheld  their  votes,  and  Mr.  W'inthrop  was 
chosen  by  a  majority  of  one. 

*  Aa  to  the  intimation  in  the  last  paragraph  but  one  of  this  note,  that  I  had  applied  for  some¬ 
thing  “  to  lie  shown  to  a  few  gentlemen,  and  to  be  withheld  from  the  great  body  of  the  Whigs,” 
it  would  be  too  captious  a  criticism  to  interpret  it  as  an  argwmentum  ad  invidiam.  But  it 
was  entirely  gratuitous,  and  I  suppose  fell  dead,  for  1  did  not  hear  a  lisp  from  any  one,  during 
the  time  that  I  remained  in  Congre.ss,  that  my  application  was  thought  exceptionable  on  any 
such  grounds,  though  some  thought  it  inconsistent  with  my  previous  course  in  declining  to 
answer  questions  put  to  me.  I  desired  permissioti  from  IVIr.  Winthrop  to  communicate  his 
reply,  should  he  make  one,  to  some  friends,  whom  I  believed  to  be  desirous  like  myself  to  be 
acquainted  with  his  sentiments,  and  for  the  same  reasons.  This  was  no  restriction  (the  suppo¬ 
sition  is  absurd)  on  his  own  perfect  lil)erty  to  inform  all  the  world  of  his  purposes.  Had  he  seen 
fit  to  inform  me,  of  course  he  might  have  .said.  Tell  them  to  your  friends  ;  and  not  only  that; 
tell  them  to  every  tK)dy  else.  Or  he  might  have  proclaimed  them  hiinself.  1  proposed  to  him 
no  concealment.  He  knows  I  did  nut.  And  I  will  not  be  so  unjust  to  him  as  to  insinuate 
that  be  meant  to  imply  the  contrary. 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
AT  URBANA- CHAMPAIGN 


12 


In  the  elections  which  followed,  of  servants  of  the  House,  I  voted  for  the 
persons  who  proved  to  be  chosen  ;  namely,  for  Mr.  Campbell  of  Tennessee  as 
Clerk,  Mr. 'Sargent  of  Pennsylvania  as  Sergeant-at-Arms,  Mr.  Horner  of  New 
Jersey  as  Doorkeeper,  and  Mr.  Johnson  of  Virginia  as  Postmaster.  All  of 
these  gentlemen  were  candidates  of  the  Whig  party,  except  Mr.  Johnson, 
who  was  a  Democrat. 

My  opposition  to  the  election  of  Mr.  Winthrop  to  the  Chair  of  the  House 
occasioned  a  furious  clamor,  especially  in  Boston.  In  the  papers  of  that  city, 
there  were  suggestions  of  the  propriety  of  an  “  indignation  meeting”  in  the 
Fourth  District;  but  it  was  ascertained,  I  believe,  that  the  feeling  of  the  Dis¬ 
trict  was  not  favorable  to  the  project,  and  it  was  abandoned. 

I  withheld  my  vote  from  Mr.  Winthrop  as  Speaker,  under  the  persuasion 
that  he  would  be  governed  in  the  administration  of  that  office  by  a  policy,  in 
my  judgment,  and  in  that  of  those  who  had  commissioned  me  to  act  for 
them,  adverse  to  the  honor  and  welfare  of  the  country.  The  Speaker  is  not 
merely  the  officer  presiding  over  the  deliberations  of  the  House.  By  his 
high  prerogative  in  the  appointment  of  the  committees,  to  whom  all  matters 
of  public  business  are  referred  in  their  earliest  stage,  he  exerts  on  the  action 
of  the  House  an  influence  in  all  cases  very  material,  and  in  a  large  propor¬ 
tion  of  cases  no  less  than  decisive.  Without  imputation  upon  Mr.  Winthrop’s 
integrity,  I  believed  his  views  in  relation  to  the  great  question  of  the  day  to 
be  such  that  I  could  not,  without  a  sacrifice  of  my  own  integrity,  help  to  in¬ 
trust  him  with  that  power.  He  was  no  representative  of  the  principles  which 
had  been  solemnly  affirmed  by  the  Whigs  who  sent  me  to  Congress.  I  be¬ 
lieved  that  he  would  take  care  to  place  the  business  of  the  House  in  the 
hands  of  committees  who  would  do  nothing  to  arrest  the  nefarious  Mexican 
war  then  raging,  and  who  would  do  no  justice  to  the  great  questions  then  and 
now  before  the  nation,  relating  to  the  abominations  of  the  Slave  Power,  exist¬ 
ing  and  meditated. 

I  might  have  been  mistaken.  The  event  might  have  shown  my  apprehen¬ 
sions  to  be  groundless.  This  would  have  convicted  me  of  an  erroneous  judg¬ 
ment.  It  would  not  have  absolved  me  from  the  obligation  of  voting  as  I  did, 
while  my  conviction  remained  what  it  was. 

But  was  I  mistaken  ?  Did  the  event  refute  me  ?  What  was  the  com¬ 
plexion  of  the  committees  appointed  by  the  Speaker  presently  after  his  ac¬ 
cession  to  the  chair  ? 

The  jurisdiction  of  the  great  question  of  the  then  flagrant  war  with  Mexico 
belonged  to  the  Committees  on  Foreign  Affairs  and  of  Ways  and  Means. 
Not  a  member  of  the  former  Committee  was  publicly  known  to  be  in  favor  of 
arresting  the  war.  At  its  head  was  Mr.  Smith  of  Connecticut.  Let  me  say 
very  little  of  Mr.  Truman  Smith.  Let  me  but  ask  whether  any  one  dreams 
that  a  committee  with  such  leading  would  be  under  special  advantages  for 
harmonizing  with  the  moral  sense  of  the  country  on  a  great  question  of  na¬ 
tional  justice  and  honor. 

The  Committee  ofWays  and  Means  was  so  constituted  as  to  promise  to  the 
administration  every  facility  in  the  way  of  funds  to  carry  on  the  war.  With 
the  exception  of  Mr.  Hudson  of  Massachusetts  and  Mr.  Hubbard  of  Con¬ 
necticut,  no  one  who  knew  the  men  imagined  that  there  would  be  any  action 
on  their  part  to  arrest  the  plans  of  conquest  then  in  prosecution. 

The  Committee  which  looked  better  than  any  other  on  paper  was  that  on 


13 


the  Territories.  If  at  the  time  of  its  appointment  Mr.  Winthrop  thought,  as 
the  public  did,  that  it  would  use  its  power  efficiently  for  freedom,  then  Mr. 
Winthrop,  like  the  public,  by  and  by  found  out  his  mistake.  He  may  have 
known  better  than  the  public  what  to  expect;  but  I  have  no  right  to  sup¬ 
pose  it. 

Of  the  nine  members  of  the  committee  on  the  District  of  Columbia,  four 
were  from  the  Slave  States;  one  was  a  Northern  Democrat, who  had  always, 

I  believe,  voted  with  the  South  on  the  questions  connected  with  slavery ; 
a  sixth,  a  Whig  of  Ohio,  was  reputed  to  be  an  owner  of  slaves  in  Maryland  ; 
and  of  the  remaining  three,  one  was  Mr.  F.  A.  Tallmadge  of  New  York. 

At  the  head  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  was  Mr.  Joseph  R.  Ingersoll,  of 
Philadelphia,  a  very  estimable  gentleman  in  private  life,  but  notoriously 
“  Southern  in  all  but  latitude.”  Mr.  Ingersoll,  with  three  gentlemen  from 
the  South,  and  Mr.  John  L.  Taylor,  constituted  the  majority  of  that  Com¬ 
mittee. 

I  repeat  the  question.  Was  it  for  me,  holding  the  opinions  I  did  hold,  repre¬ 
senting  the  constituency  I  did  represent,  —  was  it  for  me  virtually  to  vote  for 
such  committees,  by  voting  the  Speakership,  with  the  power  of  appointment, 
to  Mr.  Winthrop,  when  I  believed  that  he  would  appoint  such  committees.^ 

Mr.  Winthrop  knew  his  men.  They  did  their  work  as  was  expected,  — 
all  except  the  Committee  on  the  Territories,  who  did  not  do  their  work  as 
favorably  for  freedom  as  was  probably  anticipated  by  both  sides.  Neither  the 
Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  nor  that  of  Ways  and  Means  did  any  thing  to 
put  a  stop  to  the  war.  The  sluggish  action  of  the  Committee  on  the  Terri¬ 
tories  in  relation  to  the  organization  of  governments  in  Oregon,  California, 
and  New  Mexico,  placed  that  series  of  measures  at  great  disadvantage.  Nu¬ 
merous  petitions  for  the  repeal  of  the  law  of  Feb.  12th,  1793,  and  for  legal 
protection  for  our  colored  citizens  visiting  Southern  ports,  (among  them,  pe¬ 
titions  with  thousands  of  signatures,  presented  by  myself,  so  that  I  know 
their  history,)  were  referred  to  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary.  Every  one 
of  them  was  buried  outright.  Numerous  petitions  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  at  the  seat  of  government  went  to  the  Committee  on  the  District. 
Not  one  of  them  was  ever  heard  of  more.  Had  they  been  made  the  subject 
of  adverse  reports,  their  friends  could  have  been  heard  upon  them  in  the 
House.  As  it  was,  no  consideration  could  be  had  of  them.  They  were 
smothered.  They  were  smothered  by  the  hands  that  the  Speaker  had  em¬ 
powered.  If  Mr.  Winthrop  thought  that  this  was  the  proper  business  of  the 
committees,  he  did  properly  to  constitute  them  accordingly.  But,  as  I  did 
not  think  so,  it  was  not  right  that  he  should  be  placed  in  a  position  so  to  con¬ 
stitute  them,  by  the  help  of  any  vote  of  mine. 

I  was  charged  on  this  occasion  with  voting  against  my  party.  What  party 
elected  me  to  Congress.^  I  was  chosen  by  votes  thrown  to  the  number  of  a 
few  hundreds  by  Liberty  Party  men,  but  chiefly  by  those  of  Whigs.  My 
small  number  of  Liberty  Party  supporters  of  course  did  not  want  me  to  vote 
into  power  such  committees  as  Mr.  Winthrop  proceeded  to  aj)point ;  and  the 
Convention  of  VV'^higs  of  Middlesex,  on  the  day  of  my  nomination,  had  passed 
a  resolution  declaring  their  anti-slavery  “  principles  and  purposes,”  and  their 
purpose  to  adhere  to  them  “  at  any  political  hazard.”  * 


♦  The  Whig  Convention  which  nominated  me,  held  at  Concord,  October  6,  1S46,  and  conaiat- 


14 


My  views  on  this  class  of  questions  were  perfectly  well  known  to  the 
Whigs  who  voted  for  me.  These  views  had  been  announced,  in  language  as 
explicit  and  decided  as  I  was  capable  of  using,  in  the  pamphlet  on  the 
“  Slave  Power,”  which  I  had  published  during  the  preceding  summer,  it 
had  been  extensively  read  in  the  District,  and,  if  I  was  correctly  informed  at 
the  time,  was  circulated  among  the  electors  during  the  canvass,  at  the  expense 
of  the  Whig  District  Committee.  Nothing  could  be  more  notorious  and  un¬ 
questionable  than  was  my  position  on  that  subject.  The  Whigs  perfectly  well 
knew  by  what  principles  I  should  be  governed,  when  they  gave  me  their  votes. 
At  least,  they  perfectly  well  knew  by  what  principles  I  said  I  should  be 
governed.  A  number  of  Whigs  refused  to  vote  for  me  for  that  reason.  They 
did  not  like  my  antislavery  principles.  I  thank  them  for  their  open  hostility. 
It  implied  at  least  that  they  thought  I  would  be  as  good  as  ray  word.  I  am 
much  more  flattered  by  their  view  of  the  subject  than  by  that  which  after¬ 
wards  appeared  to  have  been  taken  by  those  Whigs  who  complained  of  me 
because,  when  in  Congress,  I  acted  up  to  the  professions  I  had  made  when 
they  sent  me  to  it.  It  seems  they  thought  I  would  do  as  so  many  be¬ 
fore  me  had  done,  —  talk  one  way  before  election,  and  act  another  way  after. 
I  do  not  feel  honored  by  the  compliment  they  paid  me.  If  that  was  their  ex¬ 
pectation,  I  thank  Heaven  they  mistook  their  man. 

But  I  “  hazarded  a  Democratic  organization  of  the  House.”  I  did  no  such 
thing.  But  suppose  I  had,  let  any  man  capable  for  one  moment  of  letting 


ingof  ninety-one  delegates,  from  thirty-five  towns,  unanimously  passed  the  following  resolve, 
viz. :  — 

“  Resolved,  —  That  the  Whigs  of  District  No.  4,  whose  battle-grounds  are  consecrated  with 
the  blood  of  those  who  perilled  their  lives  in  defence  of  that  sacred  charter  of  our  liberties, 
which  declares  that  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal,  can  recognize  no  condition  of  human  exist¬ 
ence  but  that  of  personal  freedom,  and  that  consequently  we  are  determinedly  opposed  to  every 
act  of  the  national  government  which  has  for  its  object,  or  can  have  for  its  effect,  the  perpetua¬ 
tion  and  extension  of  the  institution  of  slavery.  That  we  protest  against  the  admission  into 
this  Union,  or  the  annexation  to  these  States,  either  by  conquest  or  treaty,  of  any  new  slave  ter¬ 
ritory  ;  that  we  utterly  condemn  the  annexation  already  consummated,  and  the  disgraceful 
war  which  has  followed  in  its  train.” 

The  Whig  County  Convention  for  Middlesex  was  held  at  the  same  place  on  the  same  day. 
The  following  were  part  of  its  resolves,  viz. :  — 

“  Resolved,  —  That  the  Whigs  of  Massachusetts  have  had  enough  of  compromises. 

“Resolved,  —  That  the  war  of  invasion  and  conquest,  entered  upon  for  the  support  and  de¬ 
fence,  and  prosecuted  for  the  extension,  of  slavery,  is  an  enormous  crime ;  that  the  Executive 
war  with  Mexico,  the  first-fruits  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  can  be  justified  by  no  reason 
‘  which  does  not  deserve  the  scorn  of  man  and  the  judgments  of  Heaven,’  and  that  to  its  com¬ 
mencement,  its  support,  and  its  continuance  we  are  uncompromisingly  opposed. 

“  Resolved,  —  That  believing  it  to  have  become  the  avowed  and  settled  policy  of  the  national 
government  to  foster,  strengthen,  and  extend  the  institution  of  Slavery,  and  that  the  rights  of 
the  Free  States,  as  well  as  the  fundamental  principles  of  republican  liberty,  are  thereby  endan¬ 
gered,  the  Whigs  of  the  North  are  bound  in  duty  to  make  the  declaration,  that  they  are  to  be 
now  and  henceforth  regarded  as  the  decided  and  uncompromising  opponents  of  Slavery  ;  that 
they  are  opposed  to  its  farther  extension,  and  to  its  continuance  where  it  already  exists  ;  that 
they  will  concur  in  all  constitutional  measures  to  abridge  its  limits,  and  promote  its  abolition  ; 
and  that  to  these  their  principles  and  purposes  they  will  adhere  at  any  political  hazard. 

“  Resolved, — That  as,  upon  every  question  involving  the  extension,  the  interests,  and  the  ex¬ 
istence  of  Slavery,  there  is  ‘  but  one  party  ’  in  the  Slaveholding  States,  it  is  alike  the  policy 
and  the  duty  of  the  Free  States  to  exhibit  upon  every  such  question  a  corresponding  unanimity, 
and  that  only  in  this  way  is  there  any  hope  of  arresting  the  progress  of  the  Slave  Power  to¬ 
ward  a  monopoly  of  the  benefits,  and  an  absolute  control  of  the  destinies,  of  our  National 
Union.” 

See  note  at  the  end,  p.  27. 


alone  words  and  attending  to  things,  show  me  what  difference  that  would 
have  made.  Let  any  man,  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  Thirtieth  Con¬ 
gress,  point  out  to  me  any  important  division  in  that  House  according  to  the 
old  party  lines.  The  only  question  of  any  consequence  that  I  remember, 
which  brought  into  view  the  distinguishing  doctrines  of  the  two  old  parties, 
was  one  which  came  up  in  committee,  Feb.  17,  1848,  on  Mr.  Vinton’s  loan 
bill  for  sixteen  millions  of  dollars.  It  was  the  old  question  between  a  direct 
loan,  or  an  issue  of  treasury-notes ;  and  upon  that  question  I  gave  a  Whig 
vote,  which  vote  turned  the  scale  on  the  Whig  side,  while  Mr.  Joseph 
R.  Ingersoll,  of  Philadelphia,  Mr.  Winthrop’s  Chairman  of  the  Judiciary 
Committee,  voted  with  the  Democratic  party.  I  defy  any  man  to  show 
me  how,  in  respect  to  any  one  of  the  old  party  questions,  the  action  of  that 
Congress,  from  its  first  day  to  its  last,  from  Dec.  6,  1847,  to  March  4,  1849, 
would  have  been  different  in  any  particular  had  a  Democratic  Speaker  occu¬ 
pied  the  chair.  I  affirm,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that,  as  to  all  the  rec¬ 
ognized  topics  of  Whig  and  Democratic  controversy,  there  was  no  policy  of 
the  House  to  indicate  that  the  Democratic  Mr.  Davis  of  Indiana  was  no 
longer  its  presiding  officer. 

But,  I  repeat,  I  did  by  no  means  “  hazard  a  Democratic  organization  of  the 
House.”  The  Democrats  were  not  only  a  minority,  but  a  minority  disabled 
and  nullified  by  divisions.  There  were  anti-slavery  and  pro-slavery  Demo¬ 
crats,  Democrats  in  favor  of,  and  opposed  to,  the  policy  of  internal  improve¬ 
ments,  &c.  They  had  no  concert  of  action.  Their  vote  for  Speaker  shows 
it.  They  scattered  their  votes  on  different  candidates.  As  a  party,  they  had 
no  candidate.  Their  putting  one  of  their  number  in  the  chair  was  out  of  the 
question.  The  question  —  had  there  in  fact  been  a  question,  had  there  not 
been  a  foregone  conclusion  —  was  not  at  all  between  Mr.  Winthrop  and  some 
Democrat,  but  between  Mr.  Winthrop  and  some  other  Whig.  I  knew,  about 
as  well  as  I  ever  pretend  to  know  any  thing  future,  that  Mr.  Winthrop  would 
not  be  defeated.  Suppose  his  defeat  possible,  the  natural  and  probable  course 
of  things  would  be,  that  the  Whig  party  would  fall  back  upon  ]Mr.  Caleb  B. 
Smith,  who  had  had  the  second  largest  number  of  votes  at  the  Whig  caucus. 
The  Whig  votes  which  had  been  withheld  from  Mr.  Winthrop  would  have 
been  readily  given  for  Mr.  Smith,  in  who4n  the  dissenting  members  placed 
more  confidence  ;  and  he  would  accordingly  have  been  elected.  Tlie  same 
thing  would  have  happened  which  occurred  in  1843  in  the  House  of  Repre¬ 
sentatives  of  Massachusetts,  when  three  or  four  votes,  which  had  been  refused 
to  Mr.  Kinnicut  of  Worcester,  on  account  of  his  supposed  proslavery  bias, 
were  given  for  his  brother  Whig,  Mr.  King  of  Danvers,  and  he  was  chosen. 

But,  I  repeat  yet  again,  there  was  not  the  smallest  probability  that  Mr. 
Winthrop  would  be  defeated.  The  slave  interest  was  satisfied  that,  under  the 
then  existing  circumstances,  to  place  Mt.  Winthrop  in  the  chair  was  the  best 
thing  it  could  do  ;  and  place  him  there  it  would.  I  do  not  say  that  he  would 
have  been  its  first  choice  ;  but  as  things  stood,  his  elevation  was  the  most  ad¬ 
vantageous  thing  within  its  reach.  It  would  have  preferred  to  have  Northern 
votes  elect  him  Speaker,  and  then  have  for  itself  the  benefit  of  his  posi¬ 
tion.  It  would  have  preferred  to  avail  itself  of  him  for  its  purjioses,  and  still 
have  the  privilege  of  growling  at  him,  as  a  Northern  man,  for  doing  no  more. 
But  he  was  to  be  placed  in  the  chair  at  all  events.  I  was,  and  am,  persuaded 
that,  if  the  withdrawal  of  two  Southern  opjiosition  votes  had  not  been  enough 
to  elect  Mr.  Winthrop,  five,  —  ten, —  any  reasonable  number, —  would  have 


16 


been  withdrawn,  or  even  changed.  I  did  not  feel  it  to  be  any  honor  to  Mas¬ 
sachusetts  to  have  a  Massachusetts  man  do  Southern  work,  and  I  had  no  mind 
to  give  my  Massachusetts  vote  to  bring  about  that  consummation.  My  notion 
was.  If  South  Carolina  and  Mississippi  want  Mr.  Winthrop  for  Speaker,  let 
South  Carolina  and  Mississippi  choose  him.  It  is  not  for  the  Bay  State  to  do 
that  work  for  them.  Accordingly,  South  Carolina  and  Mississippi  did  choose 
him.  He  obtained  a  majority,  on  the  third  trial,  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  op¬ 
posing  votes  of  Mr.  Holmes  and  Mr.  Tompkins. 

Of  those  gentlemen  who,  by  withdrawing  their  opposition,  gave  the 
Speaker’s  chair  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  the  first-named  was  the  Democratic  repre¬ 
sentative  from  Charleston,  South  Carolina.  How  was  it  to  be  imagined  that 
he  and  the  Whig  representative  from  the  free  Fourth  District  of  Massachu¬ 
setts  should  help  each  other  to  place  in  power  the  same  Speaker,  and,  through 
the  Speaker,  the  same  committees.?  Would  the  committees,  and,  through 
them,  the  policy  of  the  House,  which  Mr.  Holmes  was  aiming  at,  probably  be 
acceptable  to  my  constituents  ?  He  wrote  a  letter  on  the  subject.  Let  him 
speak  for  himself. 

TO  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  CHARLESTON  MERCURY. 

« 

Washington^  January,  1848. 

Sir:  —  In  an  editorial  article  you  have  thought  proper  to  condemn  my 
refusal  to  vote  on  the  third  ballot  against  Mr.  Winthrop ;  and  you  commence 
your  essay  by  a  remark,  “  That  you  had  hoped  that  Mr.  Holmes  would  have 
explained  his  course  to  his  constituents.” 

As  you  have  called  upon  me  thus  publicly  for  an  explanation,  I  shall 
give  it. 

The  Southern  Whigs,  opposed  to  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  nominated  Mr. 
Winthrop  in  caucus  in  opposition  to  a  majority  of  the  Northern  Whigs,  who 
were  in  favor  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  and  who  opposed  the  nomination  of  Mr. 
Winthrop.  Why  this .?  Because  Mr.  Winthrop  had  been  successful  in  de¬ 
feating  the  Wilmot  Proviso  in  the  Massachusetts  Whig  Convention.  This 
circumstance,  I  thought,  was  well  calculated  to  attract  the  attention  of  South¬ 
ern  men.  In  addition  to  this,  when  the  voting  commenced  in  the  House,  the 
Abolitionists  were  found  voting  against  Mr.  Winthrop.  My  attention  was  ar¬ 
rested  by  the  fact.  I  saw  at  once  that  the  Abolitionists  were  playing  in  Con¬ 
gress  the  precise  game  so  skilfully  played  in  the  States  of  New  Hampshire  and 
New  York,  namely,  acting  as  a  balance  party,  and,  though  small  in  numbers, 
contriving  to  control  affairs.  My  attention  being  thus  roused,  I  made  inquiries 
of  the  precise  mode  of  action  by  which  the  Abolitionists  proposed  to  effect 
their  object,  and  I  did  learn  that  they  had  proposed  to  Mr.  Winthrop  to  vote 
for  him  as  Speaker,  provided  he  would  give  them  the  organization  of  the  im¬ 
portant  committees, — the  Judiciary,  Territories,  and  District  of  Columbia,  — 
upon  Abolition  principles,  with  a  view  to  abolish  slavery  in  this  District,  pre¬ 
vent  its  introduction  into  any  new  territory,  repeal  the  act  which  compels  the 
return  of  fugitive  slaves,  and  defeat  the  law  of  my  own  State  in  relation  to  the 
entrance  of  colored  persons  within  our  limits.  That  Mr.  Winthrop  preferred 
to  lose  the  Speakership  rather  than  comply  with  these  stringent  demands. 
This  fact  was  learnt  during  the  progress  of  the  third  ballot. 

The  danger  to  me  was  manifest.  The  Democrats  would  not  vote  for  a 
Whig,  and  therefore  a  Southern  Whig  could  not  be  elected.  The  Northern 


17 


Whigs  would  not  vote  for  a  Democrat  from  the  South,  because,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  the  Northern  Whigs  are  opposed  to  slavery. 

The  Abolitionists  would  not  vote  for  any  Southern  man,  —  be  he  Whig  or 
Democrat.  How,  then,  could  the  House  be  organized  ? 

In  one  mode  only  :  by  the  Northern  and  Wilmot  Proviso  men  merging 
every  consideration  into  Abolition,  and  electing  an  Abolitionist  or  Wilmot 
Proviso  man  upon  the  conditions  proposed  to,  and  rejected  by,  Mr.  Winthrop. 

I  send  you  the  correspondence  between  Mr.  Palfrey  and  Mr.  Winthrop. 
This  correspondence  will  substantiate  these  facts;  and  now  I  ask.  Ought  I, 
with  this  knowledge,  to  have  placed  the  organization  of  the  house  in  the 
hands  of  the  Abolitionists  ?  Ought  I,  a  sentinel  on  an  outpost,  to  have  hesi¬ 
tated,  in  an  unexpected  approach  of  danger,  to  defend  the  great,  the  hy  far 
greatest  of  all  interests  committed  to  me  by  a  generous  constituency  ?  I  did 
not  hesitate.  All  party  considerations  faded  before  the  deep,  intense,  burning 
necessity.  I  at  once  acted,  acted  promptly,  and,  I  grant,  decisively.  Mr. 
Winthrop  was  elected,  and  the  Abolitionists  defeated. 

The  committees  have  been  properly  organized,  and  Mr.  Palfrey,  Mr.  Gid- 
dings,  and  Mr.  Tuck  excluded  from  the  important  committees  they  were  so 
anxious  to  control. 

I  have  thus  acted ;  and  I  have  the  satisfaction  to  know,  that,  when  I  ex¬ 
plained  the  grounds  on  which  I  acted,  I  have  the  approval  of  those  whose 
judgments  I  deem  eminent  upon  such  subjects.  The  times  are  full  of  perils,  — 
perils  to  the  country  generally,  —  perils  to  the  South  emphatically.  I  act 
under  a  fearful  responsibility.  If,  in  the  exercise  of  that  responsibility,  I 
have  incurred  the  disapprobation  of  the  editor  of  the  Mercury,  I  regret  it.  It 
will  certainly  be  pleasing  if  my  explanation  shall  satisfy  him.  If  not,  I  must 
submit  with  that  meekness  which  ought  always  to  characterize  a  represen¬ 
tative. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

I.  E.  HOLMES.* 

In  the  course  of  the  voting,  my  colleagues,  Mr.  Ashrnun  and  Mr.  Rockwell, 
came  to  my  seat  with  a  message  from  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams,  to  the  effect 
that  Mr.  Adams  advised  or  requested  me  to  forbear  further  opposition  to  Mr. 
Winthrop’s  election  ;  and  it  has  been  thought  to  have  been  blameworthy  in 
me  that  I  did  not  alter  my  course  accordingly.  I  will  not  stop  to  discuss  the 
degree  of  obligation  resting  on  a  Representative  in  Congress  to  be  governed, 
in  the  discharge  of  his  trust,  by  the  request  of  any  person,  however  distin¬ 
guished,  out  of  his  District  or  in  it,  —  a  member  of  the  House  or  not.  Mr. 
Adams’s  opinions  and  wishes  were  entitled  to  my  most  respectful  consider¬ 
ation.  How  far  was  the  expression  of  them  voluntary  in  this  instance  Others 
know.  I  do  not.  It  has  been  stated,  apparently  by  authority,  that,  “  instead 

*  Mr.  Cabell,  of  Florida,  who  voted  for  Mr.  Winthrop,  explained  himself  to  his  constituents 
in  a  letter,  from  which  the  following  is  an  extract:  — 

“  It  is  well  known  to  those  who  are  engaged  in  thi.s  unholy  purpo.se  to  stir  the  blood  and  ex- 
a.sperate  the  feelings  of  the  South  on  this  delicate  subject  of  slavery,  that  the  object  of  the 
Alxilitionists  can  be  obtained,  so  far  as  the  reference  of  their  petitions  is  concerned,  without  a 
vote  of  the  House, —  simply  by  pre.senting  them  at  the  Clerk’s  table.  They  have  been  re¬ 
peatedly  so  referred.  The  committees  have  in  all  cases  reported  them  Imck  to  the  Hou.se,  and 
a.sked  to  be  discharged  from  their  consideration.  Tiiis  is  the  course  approved  by  3Ir.  Win¬ 
throp.” 


3 


18 


of  going  himself  to  Mr.  P.,  Mr.  A.  expressly  declined  doing  so  ” ;  from  which 
it  is  not  unnatural  to  infer  that  Mr.  Adams  neither  was  the  original  proposer 
of  the  communication,  nor  entered  warmly  into  it.  Had  what  passed  been  in 
a  personal  interview  instead  of  a  message,  I  might  have  ventured  to  suggest 
to  Mr.  Adams  some  of  those  considerations  which  were  controlling  my  own 
mind,  and  ask  him  how  their  force  was  to  be  done  away ;  and,  in  reference 
to  the  letter  which  I  had  received  the  night  before  from  Mr.  Winthrop,  I 
might  have  informed  him  that  there  was  a  part  of  the  case  upon  which  I  was 
proceeding,  as  yet  unknown  to  him.  I  might  have  said,  “  Here,  Mr.  Adams, 
is  a  letter,  in  which  the  candidate  for  the  chair,  declining  to  inform  me  more 
directly  respecting  his  views,  refers  me  to  his  votes  and  speeches  as  the  proper 
sources  of  information  upon  the  point,  whether  I  should  give  him  my  vote. 
‘  My  votes  are  on  record,’  he  says ;  ‘  my  speeches  are  in  print.’  On  the  rec¬ 
ord  of  those  votes  which  he  bids  me  consider,  I  find  the  vote  for  the  Mexican 
War  Bill,  on  the  11th  of  May  of  last  year.  It  is  not  for  me  to  deny  that  he 
thought  it  his  duty  to  give  that  vote,  —  that  he  considered  it  to  be  required  by 
the  interests  and  honor  of  the  country,  and  the  cause  of  justice  and  humanity, 
to  let  loose  fifty  thousand  men,  with  all  the  enginery  of  destruction,  upon 
Mexico,  for  a  carnage  so  vast,  so  horrible,  so  unprovoked,  for  such  an  object. 
But  being  myself  of  the  opposite  opinion,  rather  than  that  I  should  have  given 
that  vote,  it  were  good  for  me  that  I  had  not  been  born.  Among  the  printed 
speeches  to  which  Mr.  Winthrop  refers  me,  one  of  the  last  that  I  remember 
was  that  of  last  autumn  in  Faneuil  Hall,  in  which  he  expressed  no  repentance 
for  that  vote,  but,  on  the  contrary,  assumed  its  responsibility,  and  virtually 
defended  it.  And  now  he  distinctly  challenges  me,  by  voting  for  him  as 
Speaker,  to  express  my  approbation  of  his  votes  and  speeches, —  those  very 
material  ones  among  the  rest.  I  know  you  are  not  the  man  that  will  advise 
me  to  do  it.”  * 


t 


*  A  writer  in  the  Charlestown  newspaper  gave  the  following  account  of  the  transaction :  — 
“The  act  is  repeated.  In  that  shrill  voice  the  tones  of  vindictive  triumph  strike  the  ear. 
But,  mark  !  the  third  and  final  trial  is  proceeding.  See  that  venerable  figure,  bowing  almost  to 
that  tomb  which  has  now  received  him.  Follow  him  through  that  anxious  crowd,  which  in¬ 
stinctively  and  reverentially  give  way  to  ‘the  old  man  eloquent.’  He  approaches  that  strange 
Whig,  whose  voice  for  Charles  Hudson  —  chagrined,  provoked,  as  Mr.  Hudson  is  at  such  an 
honor  —  he  has  just  heard.  No  anger  is  on  his  brow,  but  sadness  and  kindness  mark  his  ex¬ 
pression.  Let  us  catch  the  sounds  of  that  voice,  which  never  fell  without  weight  upon  a  Mas¬ 
sachusetts  ear;  for  its  utterance  was  ever  that  of  independence,  truth,  wisdom.  We  may  sup¬ 
pose,  in  accordance  with  the  accounts  of  that  memorable  interview,  which  have  never  been 
contradicted  or  denied,  and  which  it  is  too  late  now  ever  to  contradict  or  deny,  that  its  pur¬ 
port  might  have  been  this  :  —  ‘  My  friend,  I  pray  you  to  trust  to  me  this  once.  You  doubtless 
mean  well,  but  this  is  a  new  life  for  you.  You  are  doing  an  act,  the  awful  extent  of  the  conse¬ 
quences  of  which  no  man  can  tell.  You  are  in  a  position  of  the  utmost  moment,  for  on  a  change 
of  your  voice  depends  the  choice  of  a  Massachusetts  or  Ohio  Whig,  or  a  slave-owning  South¬ 
erner  and  radical  Locofoco,  to  the  great  committee  of  this  House.  You  know  me  too  well  to 
doubt  that  I  would  not  counsel  you  to  any  thing  unbecoming  a  man,  a  Whig,  an  outspoken  op¬ 
ponent  of  slavery.  But  in  persisting  in  throwing  your  vote  practically  for  the  Locofoco  candi¬ 
date,  you  jeopardize  your  country,  your  party,  yourself !  I  beseech  you,  as  a  personal  favor, — 
a  mark  of  private  friendship, —  that  you  would  bury  any  feelings  of  individual  enmity  against 
Mr.  Winthrop,  which  may  be  rankling  in  your  bosom,  and  remember  that  in  striking  down 
him,  by  the  power  providentially  in  your  hands,  you  prostrate  Northern  interests,  peace,  jus¬ 
tice,  human  rights!’  The  venerable  sage  of  Quincy  turns  aside  in  despair,  for  he  is  skilled 
enough  in  human  experience,  in  drawing  conclusions  as  to  the  working  of  the  soul  within 


19 


Soon  after,  I  had  a  conversation  wdth  IMr,  Adams  on  the  subject.  As  I  am 
the  only  witness  to  it,  I  shall  say  no  more  than  that  it  was  in  the  highest  de¬ 
gree  satisfactory  to  me. 

Complaint  was  made,  that,  before  giving  my  vote,  I  inquired  of  Mr.  Win- 
throp  how  he  intended  to  constitute  the  committees  with  reference  to  the  ques¬ 
tions  of  Slavery  and  War.  It  was  represented  as  inconsistent  and  indeco¬ 
rous  in  me  to  take  that  step,  inasmuch  as,  when  called  upon  by  the  Liberty 
party,  while  a  candidate  for  election  as  representative,  to  give  pledges  re¬ 
specting  my  future  action,  I  had  declined  to  do  so. 

1  cannot  admit  that  there  is  any  ground  for  such  a  censure,  in  either  of  its 
phases.  When  questions  had  been  addressed  to  me,  I  had  never  dreamed  of 
treating  or  of  regarding  that  course  as  affrontive,  or  otherwise  than  as  entirely 
respectful,  on  the  part  of  the  questioner.  Any  gentleman — such  was  and  is 
my  view  —  may  properly  ask  questions,  and  any  one,  on  his  responsibility, 
may  answer  them,  or  decline  to  answer.  As  to  which  of  these  courses  is 
preferable,  different  persons  think  differently,  and  the  same  persons  think  dif¬ 
ferently  in  respect  to  different  occasions.  The  latter  course  had  been  adopt¬ 
ed  by  me  in  respect  to  a  communication  from  a  committee  of  the  Liberty 
party;  it  was  perfectly  right  that  it  should  be  adopted  by  Mr.  Winthrop,  if  he 
saw  fit;  —  by  both  of  us,  of  course,  under  the  same  condition;  namely,  that 
our  refusal  became  a  fact  to  be  taken  into  account  by  the  questioner  in  deter¬ 
mining  his  own  further  action.  On  the  other  hand,  I  have  answered  ques¬ 
tions.  When  a  committee  of  the  Liberty  party  asked  me  whether  I  should 
refuse  to  vote  for  a  slaveholder  for  any  office,  I  told  them  that  I  should  not  so 
refuse.  I  might  add,  though  I  do  not  care  to  lay  any  stress  upon  it,  that  the 
series  of  measures  referred  to  in  the  questions  addressed  to  me  by  the  Liberty 
party  was  such,  that,  whenever  canvassed  in  Congress,  they  would  lead  to 
much  consideration  and  debate,  to  which  the  legislator  should  not  preclude 
himself,  by  previous  engagements,  from  giving  a  fair  attention  ;  whereas  my 
questions  to  Mr.  Winthrop  related  to  an  act  solely  his  own,  to  be  done 
within  a  few  days,  and  of  which  the  outline,  if  not  most  of  the  details,  had 
no  doubt  been  fully  resolved  upon  in  his  own  mind.  He  knew  just  as  well, 
and  as  irrevocably,  on  the  5th  day  of  December,  the  principles,  policy,  and 
plan  on  which  he  should  constitute  the  committees,  as  he  knew  on  the  13th, 
when  the  names  were  read  from  the  Clerk’s  desk. 

My  voles  for  the  Whig  candidate  for  the  place  of  Clerk,  and  for  the 
Democratic  candidate  for  the  place  of  Postmaster,  were  both  made  subjects  of 
censure.  The  candidate  for  the  clerkship  was  Mr.  Campbell  of  Tennessee. 
Just  as  the  vote  was  to  be  taken,  one  of  the  Massachusetts  delegation  took 
pains  to  tell  me  that  he  understood  that  Mr.  Campbell  was  not  a  slave¬ 
holder,  apprehending,  probably,  that  if  I  supposed  otherwise  it  would  deprive 
him  of  my  vote.  It  would  not  have  done  so,  however.  Nor  should  I  have 
asked  the  question.  The  position  of  Clerk  is  as  different  as  possible  from  that 
of  Speaker.  Were  he  ever  so  much  of  a  proslavery  man,  he  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  appointment  of  Committees,  or  have  any  similar 
power  to  influence  the  action  of  the  House  in  conformity  with  his  views  upon 
that  matter.  On  the  other  hand,  I  considered  the  office  of  Clerk  to  be  so  fiir 


from  iho  lineaments  of  the  countenance  without,  to  know  that  lii.s  coim.scl,  not  often  uttered  to 
un()crsuaded  ears  among  his  friends,  h.is  fillen  powerless.” 

This,  however,  was  a  mistake.  I  had  no  conference  with  Mr.  Adamson  that  occasion. 


20 


one  of  a  confidential  nature,  that  it  was  proper  that  he  should  be  a  person 
harmonizing  in  political  sentiment  with  the  party  in  power  in  the  House,  and 
with  its  presiding  officer.  And  I  voted  for  Mr.  Campbell  in  preference  to  his 
predecessor  and  competitor,  Mr.  French.* 

When  I  went  to  Washington,  I  found  Mr.  Johnson  in  the  humble  place  of 
Postmaster  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  He  was  the  Democratic  candi¬ 
date  for  reelection.  Whether  he  was  a  slaveholder,  or  not,  I  never  asked, 
nor  had,  nor  have  I,  the  slightest  care  about  it,  except  for  his  own  sake.  I 
asked  a  respected  colleague  of  long  experience  in  the  House,  whether  Mr. 
Johnson  was  a  capable  and  faithful  officer.  He  replied  that  he  had  never 
heard  any  thing  against  him  in  either  of  these  respects.  I  said,  then  I 
could  not  vote  to  supersede  him.  Other  Whigs,  —  Mr.  Houston  of  Dela¬ 
ware,  Mr.  Thibodeaux  of  Louisiana,  —  it  seems,  thought  as  I  did.  At  all 
events,  they  gave  the  same  vote.  And  yet  other  Whigs,  whom  I  could  name, 
purposely  abstained  from  voting  at  all,  with  a  view  to  give  the  choice  to  Mr. 
Johnson.  I  could  have  done  no  otherwise  than  I  did  in  this  instance,  without 
a  complete  change  of  my  views  respecting  the  proper  course  of  action  in 
such  cases.  I  did  not  consider  myself  as  belonging  to  the  party  of  “  the 
spoils”;  the  party  held  together,  as  some  one  has  said,  by  “the  cohesion 
of  public  plunder.”  My  opinion  was,  that,  while  officers  of  that  descrip¬ 
tion  that  their  opinions  influence  the  management  of  public  affairs  should 
be  taken  from  the  party  in  power,  because  the  majority  has  a  right  to  have 
its  will  efficiently  carried  out,  it  is,  on  the  other  hand,  no  reason  whatever  for 
superseding  a  good  ministerial  officer,  that  he  belongs  to  one  or  another  polit¬ 
ical  school;  and  the  public  good  is  not  promoted,  but  damaged,  by  such  a 
practice.  I  believed  that  such  was  the  opinion  of  the  Massachusetts  men  who 
sent  me  to  Congress.  Such  was  my  opinion,  and  such  my  unrebuked  practice, 
during  the  years  that  I  was  Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth.  In  that  capa¬ 
city  I  employed  a  considerable  number  of  clerks,  without  ever  appointing  or 
displacing  one  because  of  his  being  Whig  or  Democrat.  The  same  appears  to 
have  been  the  view  of  my  superiors  at  home,  by  association  with  whom  I 
may  naturally  have  been  confirmed  in  it.  The  Governor  and  Council  who 
came  into  office  in  1844  found  in  the  place  of  their  Messenger  a  Democrat, 
recently  appointed  by  their  Democratic  predecessors.  He  was  a  suitable 
person  for  the  place,  and,  though  much  solicitation  was  made  for  it  by  mem- 


*  In  the  autumn  of  1843,  in  a  speech  at  Charlestown,  I  made  both  these  statements,  viz. :  — 
1st.  That  I  was  informed  before  the  vote,  by  a  colleague  whom  I  named,  that  Mr.  Campbell 
was  not  a  slaveholder ;  but  that,  2d.  I  should  not  have  sought  the  information,  nor  did  it  in¬ 
fluence  my  action,  because,  from  the  entirely  different  nature  of  the  two  offices,  I  had  no  such 
questions  to  raise  in  respect  to  a  Clerk  as  I  had  in  respect  to  a  Speaker.  On  this  occasion,  a 
writer  in  the  newspaper  of  that  city  took  the  very  strong  course  of  representing  that  I  had 
stated  I\Tr.  Campbell  not  to  be  a  slaveholder,  and  then  insisting  on  what  he  called  “  the  notori¬ 
ous,  undenied,  undoubted  fact,  that  he  was  not  only  from  a  Slave  State,  but  actually  a  slave¬ 
holder.”  And  to  corroborate  the  latter  assertion,  he  published  a  letter  from  Washington,  in 
which  the  writer  said,  “There  is  in  the  office  of  Indian  Affairs  a  gentleman  of  the  name  of 
Mullay,  whose  former  residence  was  Tennessee,  and,  as  I  have  been  informed,  he  was  a  very 
near  neighbour  of  Col.  Campbell,  and  he  assured  a  friend  of  mine,  who  gave  me  the  informa¬ 
tion,  that  he  knew  Col.  Campbell  to  be  a  slaveholder.”  There  was  a  double  mistake,  however. 
I  had  not  said  that  Mr.  Campbell  was  not  a  slaveholder,  but  that  I  had  been  so  informed,  giv¬ 
ing  my  authority.  And  I  had  afterwards,  directly  from  Mr.  Campbell  himself,  the  assurance 
that  my  information  had  been  correct. 


21 


bers  of  the  Whig  party,  he  was  retained  for  three  or  four  years,  till  he  volun¬ 
tarily  resigned  for  a  more  advantageous  employment. 

Through  the  remainder  of  my  service  in  Congress,  I  was  not  again  separat¬ 
ed  from  the  Massachusetts  delegation  in  any  important  vote.  I  look  from 
time  to  time  as  much  part  in  the  action  of  the  House  as  generally  falls  to  the 
share  of  inexperienced  members.  It  was  my  good  fortune  to  introduce  and 
carry  a  bill  making  arrangements  for  the  taking  of  the  census  of  this  year, 
after  a  bill  reported  by  the  Judiciary  Committee  had  proved  unsatisfactory. 
Altogether  unexpectedly,  I  dare  say,  to  others,  as  well  as  to  myself,  I  had  the 
laboring  oar  in  that  House  in  defence  of  the  Protective  System,  on  which  sub¬ 
ject,  as  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Agriculture,  I  presented  a  report 
which  was  the  fruit  of  much  labor.  The  only  argument  made  by  any  Repre¬ 
sentative  at  either  session  of  that  Congress,  in  favor  of  the  reduction  of  postage 
to  a  uniform  two-cent  rate,  was  mine.  On  the  20th  and  21st  of  April,  I  took  a 
part,  which  it  gratifies  me  to  remember,  in  that  action  in  the  House  which 
broke  down  an  insolent  slavedealers’  and  slaveholders’  mob,  after  it  had  had 
its  lawless  way  two  or  three  nights,  and  established  for  ever  the  freedom  of 
the  press  at  the  seat  of  government.* 

The  Conventions  which  respectively  nominated  Mr.  Cass  and  General 
Taylor  as  candidates  for  the  Presidency  were  held  in  the  May  and  June  next 
following  the  meeting  of  the  Thirtieth  Congress.  A  convention  of  delegates 
from  nineteen  States,  representing  citizens  who  regarded  the  arrest  of  the  usur¬ 
pations  of  the  Slave  Power  as  the  most  important  object  of  public  policy,  met 
at  Buffalo,  the  second  week  in  August.  Intelligence  of  its  having  nomi¬ 
nated  Mr.  Van  Buren  reached  Washington  a  day  or  twm  before  the  close  of 
the  session. 

A  more  painful  question  than  now  occurred  could  scarcely  have  presented 
itself  to  me.  I  had  been  in  the  habit  of  thinking  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  as  un¬ 
favorably  as  perhaps  every  Democrat  in  New  England  regards  Mr.  Clay.  The 
idea  of  supporting  him  was  extremely  distasteful  to  me,  and  I  had  w'ritten  to 
my  friends  in  Massachusetts  that  1  did  not  expect  to  be  able  to  do  so  in  the 
event  of  his  nomination,  which  some  of  them  had  informed  me  was,  in  their 
opinion,  a  possible  result.  I  came  home,  shut  myself  up  almost  entirely,  and 
thought  over  the  matter  sorrowfully  and  anxiously  for  a  week. 

I  could  not  getaway  from  the  conclusion.  If  I  was  to  do  my  duty  accord¬ 
ing  to  my  light,  it  was  necessary  for  me  to  make  every  other  consideration 
yield  to  that  of  doing  the  best  which  the  circumstances  permitted  for  the 
perilled  and  outraged  cause  of  liberty.  In  looking  at  Mr.  Van  Buren’s  his¬ 
tory,  I  found  that  his  early  and  his  recent  public  course  had  been  true  to  right 
and  freedom.  There  had  been  a  miserable  interval,  when,  entangled  in  the 
meshes  of  party  and  high  station,  he,  like  all  but  one  of  the  contemporaries 
who  had  stood  with  him  in  the  foremost  rank  of  American  statesmen,  had 

*  A  writer  in  a  Whig  newspaper  of  this  county,  out  of  the  District,  represented  me  as 
friendly  to  the  claims  of  slavery,  because  I  voted  to  give  a  Virginia  member  /care  to  introduce, 
a  bill  providing  for  the  capture  of  fugitive  slaves.  Perhaps  (for  folly  is  boundless)  the  writer 
really  did  himself  l)elieve  that  I  was  lending  my  aid  to  make  the  laws  on  that  subject  more 
atrocious  than  they  are.  Perhaps  he  did  not  know  that  I  voted  on  this  occasion  with  other 
Northern  antislavery  Whigs,  of  much  more  consecpience  than  my-self,  and  that  our  aim  was  to 
get  into  the  House,  for  its  debate  and  action,  the  subject,  which,  under  the  Rules  and  Orders,  I 
had  been  prevented  from  introducing,  when  I  attempted  it  by  a  resolution  which  I  had  recently 
offered  for  the  repeal  of  the  law  of  Feb.  I2th,  17113. 


22 


yielded  to  the  base  expediencies  of  the  time.  His  worst  acts  of  that  description 
were  of  a  different  shade  of  delinquency  from  what  had  been  commonly  rep¬ 
resented,  and  compared  not  unfavorably  with  acts  of  leading  men  of  the 
party  with  which  I  had  always  acted.  Above  all,  the  great  fact  stood  out 
broadly,  that  while  Mr.  Van  Buren,  like  all  the  other  most  prominent  states¬ 
men  of  the  country  still  living,  had  been  too  submissive  to  the  Slave  Power, 
he  was  the  only  one  of  them  who  was  man  enough  to  turn  from  the  error  of 
his  way,  and  assume  the  thankless  and  thorny  championship  of  the  right.  It 
turned  out  that  291,000  voters  in  the  country,  more  than  one  in  ten  of  the 
whole  number,  38,000  voters  in  Massachusetts,  nearly  three  in  ten  of  the 
whole  number,  had  determined  to  make  the  policy  of  freedom  paramount  to 
every  rule  of  political  action.  I  took  care  to  have  my  name  counted  among 
them. 

Before  there  was  opportunity  to  announce  the  course  which  I  resolved  to 
take,  I  received  assurances  on  the  part  of  influential  Whig  gentlemen  of  the 
District,  that,  if  I  would  but  refrain  from  open  opposition  to  them  in  the  ap¬ 
proaching  Presidential  contest,  I  should  again  be  nominated  by  their  party  for 
election  to  Congress.  But  I  could  not  be  silent.  I  could  not  consent  that 
any  power  or  inducement  on  earth  should  tempt  me  to  withhold  such  feeble 
aid  as  I  could  give  when  such  a  cause  as  that  of  the  Free  Soil  party  was 
struggling  with  such  odds. 

The  Free  Soil  State  Convention  was  held  on  the  6th  day  of  September. 
I  was  desired  to  prepare  its  Address  to  the  electors,  and  a  series  of  Resolutions. 
As  one  of  the  questions  to  come  before  it  would  be  that  of  a  separate  noniina- 
tion  for  Governor,  I  declined  to  do  so,  or  to  attend  its  sitting,  on  account  of 
my  recent  relations  to  Governor  Briggs.  Subsequently,  on  its  being  repre¬ 
sented  to  me  that  I  could  confine  myself  to  questions  of  national  politics  bear¬ 
ing  upon  the  then  approaching  Presidential  election,  I  consented  to  prepare 
the  Address,  which  received  some  additions  and  alterations  in  the  hands  of 
the  Convention’s  committee.  I  also  furnished  some  of  the  Resolutions,  all, 
however,  relating  to  the  national  questions.  And  at  the  election  which  fol¬ 
lowed,  I  did  not  vote  against  Governor  Briggs.  Notwithstanding  my  great  re¬ 
gard  for  him  personally,  still,  in  view  of  the  influences  by  which  he  allows 
himself  to  be  swayed,  I  have  always  been  less  clear  about  the  propriety  of 
this  than  of  any  other  part  of  my  course. 

My  position  being  understood,  a  Whig  Convention  in  the  District,  and  a 
Democratic  Convention,  each  set  up  another  candidate,  while  many  of  my 
former  supporters,  with  others,  honored  me  with  their  confidence.  In  this 
division  of  parties,  no  candidate  has  obtained  a  majority  of  votes,  and,  after 
nine  trials,  the  District  remains  unrepresented.  At  the  second  trial,  the 
number  of  votes  cast  for  me  fell  short  by  43  of  the  number  necessary  to  effect 
a  choice  ;  on  the  ninth  it  fell  short  by  254.  The  sixth  trial,  which  took  place 
on  the  same  day  with  that  of  State  officers  in  November,  was  the  first  at 
which  I  failed  of  having  a  plurality  of  votes  over  each  of  the  other  candidates. 
At  that  time,  564  more  votes  were  cast  for  the  Whig  candidate  than  for  me. 

This  was  generally  thought  to  be  owing  to  an  estrangement  of  some  of  my 
former  supporters,  occasioned  by  a  coalition  (so  called  in  the  hostile  news¬ 
papers)  that  had  been  formed  in  some  of  the  counties  for  the  choice  of  State 
Senators.  As  things  had  been  going,  it  seemed  certain  that  the  Free  Soil 
party  would  have  no  representative  in  the  Senate,  as  in  no  county  did  it  out¬ 
number  both  the  others.  The  same  was  the  case  with  the  Democratic  party. 


23 


And.  by  the  constitutional  provision,  the  vacant  places  for  counties  which  had 
failed  to  elect  would  be  filled  from  the  two  highest  lists  of  candidates,  by  joint 
ballot  of  the  two  Houses.  Under  these  circumstances,  tlie  Democrats  said  to 
the  Free  Soil  Convention,  —  You  profess  to  make  all  other  questions  subor¬ 
dinate  to  that  of  opposition  to  the  extension  of  Slave  Power.  We  have 
prominent  men  who  sympathize  with  you  as  to  the  question  which  makes 
the  basis  of  your  organization.  We  will  designate  such  persons  as  candidates. 
We  will  then  adopt  an  equal  number  of  candidates  of  your  proposing,  and 
our  united  votes  shall  carry  them  all  into  the  Senate. 

The  Free  Soil  party  at  first  declined,  but  afterwards  entered  into  the  ar¬ 
rangement.  They  said,  —  It  is  important  that  the  cause  of  Freedom  should 
be  represented  in  the  State  Senate.  We  can  obtain  a  representation  for  it  in 
no  other  way.  And  we  sacrifice  no  principle  in  obtaining  a  representation  for 
it  in  this  way  ;  for  the  candidates  who  are  offered  us  are  men  worthy  of  con¬ 
fidence,  and  more  fit  for  the  Senatorial  trust  than  those  on  the  ticket  which 
we  shall  jointly  oppose.  And  so  the  arrangement  was  made,  and  was  suc¬ 
cessful  in  the  counties  of  Middlesex  and  Worcester,  within  which  the  Fourth 
District  lies.  And,  disturbed  by  the  baseness  of  my  privity  to  this  coalition, 
some  of  my  former  supporters  changed  their  votes. 

Now,  though  hard  words  break  no  bones,  and  though  the  word  coalition 
(with  nothing  to  qualify  it)  is  soft  and  innocuous  enough,  yet  one  naturally 
prefers,  when  the  time  comes,  to  be  judged  with  reference  to  facts  as  they  oc¬ 
curred,  rather  than  to  any  body’s  imagination  of  them.  The  facts,  as  to  my¬ 
self,  were  these.  At  an  early  .stage  of  the  project  I  was  consulted  upon  it,  by 
leading  gentlemen  of  my  political  creed,  and  1  replied  distinctly  to  this  effect : 
—  1.  I  do  not  understand  you  to  propose  to  make  my  election  to  Congress  a 
part  of  the  contemplated  arrangement,  so  as  that  the  Democrats  shall  vote  for 
me  on  condition  of  our  voting  for  their  Senators;  if  I  did  so  understand  it, 
I  should  feel  that  I  had  a  right  to  take  that  question  into  my  own  hands, 
and  I  should  settle  it  by  an  immediate  withdrawal  of  my  name  from  the  can¬ 
vas;  I  would  not  consent  to  continue  a  candidate  on  those  terms.*  2.  As  to 


*  The  only  communication,  verbal  or  written,  which  I  ever  had  with  any  Democrat,  re¬ 
specting  support  from  the  Democratic  party,  was  in  a  correspondence,  consisting  of  two  letters, 
one  received  and  one  written  by  me,  at  Washington,  in  December,  1848.  The  tenor  of  the 
letter  addressed  to  me  may  be  inferred  from  my  reply,  which  I  subjoin  in  full.  I  need  give  no 
name.  My  correspondent  will  know  that  the  letters  passed,  and  that  my  copy  is  correct. 

Washington,  Dec.  I'itth,  1848. 

My  Dear  Sir,  — 

Your  letter  of  the  15th  reached  me  yesterday.  I  thank  you  for  the  expression  of  confi¬ 
dence  which  it  conveys.  Since  our  acquaintance  began,  in  the  stormy  legislative  scenes  of  1842 
and  1843,  though  our  party  associations  have  been  different,  you  are  aware,  I  believe,  that  I 
have  not  failed  to  value  and  reciprocate  your  friendly  regard. 

You  say  that  you  desire  to  a.scertain  “  what  the  Democratic  party  in  this  Commonwealth 
are  to  expect  from  me  and  the  party  who  have  sustained  me,  provided  they  shall  unite  with 
my  friends  and  secure  my  election.” 

Pardon  me,  dear  Sir,  if,  in  answer  to  that  part  of  the  question  which  concerns  myself  indi¬ 
vidually,  I  can  only  say  that  1  shall  cheerfully  retire  from  the  place  to  which  niy  constituents 
have  elevated  me,  should  that  prove  to  be  their  pleasure  ;  and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  if  con¬ 
tinued  in  office,  by  whose-soever  votes  that  result  shall  be  brought  to  pass,  lean  only  engage  to 
pursue  the  course  which  from  time  to  time  my  best  Judgment  of  what  is  demanded  by  tlie  j)ub- 
lic  honor  and  interest  shall  dictate.  What  that  course  may  be  expected  to  be,  1  must  rather 
leave  to  be  inferred  from  what  I  liave  heretofore  done  and  written,  than  from  any  ])rofessions 
made  on  the  eve  of  an  election. 


24 


the  question  of  an  arrangement  limited  to  a  joint  Senatorial  ticket,  I  have  cer« 
tainly  no  right  to  dictate,  scarcely  to  advise  ;  my  opinion  on  that  question  is 
worth  no  more  than  that  of  any  other  citizen  in  the  District ;  it  is  not  worth 
so  much  as  that  of  many,  experienced  (as  I  am  not)  in  party  action  ;  if  I  were 
to  be  at  the  proposed  Convention,  I  cannot  say  that  I  might  not  hear  arguments 
for  the  plan  that  would  satisfy  me;  but  my  judgment  and  my  feelings  are 
against  it ;  it  is  more  agreeable  to  me  that  we  should  continue  to  stand  inde¬ 
pendently  on  our  original  principles,  and  refrain,  though  at  the  cost  of  long 
defeat,  from  any  thing  that  might  turn  out  to  be  an  “  entangling  alliance.” 
I  continued  so  to  view  the  question. 

The  joint  Senatorial  ticket  was,  however,  formed  in  Middlesex,  and  I  voted 
for  it.  I  did  so,  without  a  word  of  advice  or  solicitation  from  any  one.  Inde¬ 
pendently  of  the  deference  due  from  me  to  the  decision  of  my  friends  on  a 
question  of  expediency,  upon  which  their  judgment  was  far  better  than  my 
own,  the  ticket  was  the  best  in  the  field.  Besides  being  half  composed  of  per¬ 
sons  in  thorough  sympathy  with  me  on  political  questions,  the  names  upon  it 
represented  a  larger  aggregate  than  those  on  either  of  the  other  lists,  of  weight 
of  character  and  of  qualifications  for  Senatorial  business.  Setting  partisan 
considerations  aside,  I  defy  any  man  to  deny  this. 

I  pursue  this  course  of  remark  no  further.  I  have  not  been  maintaining  the 
correctness  of  those  political  doctrines  which,  commending  themselves  to  my 
judgment  and  conscience,  have,  from  first  to  last,  determined  my  course. 
That  I  have  done  on  other  occasions,  and  may  do  again.  I  have  now  been 
vindicating,  not  them,  but  myself,  and  showing  that  I  have  acted  in  such  a 
manner  as,  in  faithfulness  to  them,  consistency,  integrity,  and  honor  required. 
And  I  do  not  pretend  to  have  taken  notice  of  all  the  public  animadversions  of 
which  I  may  have  been  made  the  subject.  I  dare  say  that  some  which  I  may 
have  seen  I  have  forgotten,  and  I  presume  that  there  have  been  others  which 


To  that  portion  of  your  inquiry  which  relates  to  the  party  that  nominated  me  for  the.  repre¬ 
sentation  of  the  Fourth  District,  I  am  unable  otherwise  to  reply  than  by  referring  to  the  author¬ 
ized  exposition  of  the  principles  of  that  party.  I  am  not  qualified  to  answer  for  it  in  any  other 
way.  I  never  aspired  to  be  a  party  leader,  manager,  or  spokesman.  Few  men  are  less  con¬ 
versant  with  party  operations.  Respecting  the  party  which  has  put  me  in  nomination,  I  have, 
for  myself,  no  doubt  of  its  having  at  heart  the  best  honor  of  the  country,  and  the  highest  pros¬ 
perity  of  all  interests  in  it. 

I  have  not  desired  to  send  you  a  brief,  still  less  a  superficial  answer,  but  really  I  have  said 
substantially  all  that  I  could  say,  if  I  should  enlarge  ever  so  much.  I  have  never  made  to  any 
party  professions  of  what  I  would  do  if  raised  to  office.  Bly  repugnance  to  making  such 
professions  is  very  decided.  I  can  go  contentedly  into  private  life,  but  I  cannot  do  or  say  any 
thing  to  restrict  my  perfect  freedom  to  act  in  public  station  as  my  sense  of  duty  at  the  time 
shall  direct. 

You  avow  your  aim  to  be  “the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number.”  I  accede  cordially 
to  what  I  understand  to  be  the  spirit  of  your  remark.  But  I  would  alter  its  terms.  “The 
greatest  number”  is  only  the  majority.  I  presume  your  aim  includes  the  good  of  the  minority 
also.  We  both  aim  at  (he  greatest  good  of  the  whole. 

I  will  only  add  that,  as  to  the  “  moneyed  aristocracy  ”  of  which  you  speak,  I  think  with  you 
that  its  power  has  of  late  been  most  perniciously  manifested.  In  my  judgment,  that  power 
was  brought  to  bear  on  the  recent  Presidential  election  in  our  State,  in  a  way  which  may  well 
give  the  most  serious  alarm  to  every  reflecting  and  patriotic  citizen.  Nor  is  my  uneasiness  on 
this  subject  of  entirely  recent  date,  as  you  may  see  in  my  pamphlet  entitled  “  Papers  on  the 
Slave  Power,”  if  you  have  a  copy  within  reach,  —  particularly  in  Nos.  9,  11,  22,  and  24,  and  in 
the  preface  to  the  second  edition.  I  wish  I  had  a  copy  here  to  send  you. 

I  shall  always  be  happy  to  hear  from  you,  and  am,  dear  Sir, 

With  great  respect  and  esteem. 

Your  friend  and  servant. 


25 


I  never  saw  or  heard  of ;  for,  considering  what  those  known  to  me  have  been, 
there  is  no  reason  why  the  like  should  not  have  been  multiplied  to  any  ex¬ 
tent.  I  see  very  few  newspapers,  of  late,  except  from  Washington.  I  was 
formerly  in  the  habit  of  reading  the  two  principal  Whig  daily  papers  of  Bos¬ 
ton  ;  one  of  them  constantly  for  thirty  years.  But  the  one  I  have  not  seen, 
except  for  some  such  purpose  as  to  look  at  an  advertisement,  for  more  than  a 
year *  * ;  nor  the  other  for  nearly  two  years,  except  on  one  occasion,  when  I 
was  told  that  it  had  stated  that  I  voted  against  the  usual  resolution  of  thanks 
to  the  Speaker  on  the  adjournment  of  Congress.  Living  as  retired  as  I  do  of 
late,  it  has  sometimes  happened  to  me  to  hear,  for  the  first  time,  of  some  in¬ 
jurious  misrepresentation,  weeks  or  months  .after  it  has  been  doing  its  work. 

Shall  I  venture  to  suggest  that  I  have  found  some  mitigation  of  the  pain 
which  severe  language  naturally  creates,  in  supposing  that  the  fiercest  re¬ 
proaches  that  have  assailed  me  have  not  been  from  children  of  the  State 
which  gave  me  birth,  and  in  which  my  ancestors  have  lived  from  the  first 
hour  of  its  two  colonies  ?  Of  the  three  gentlemen  connected  with  the 
Boston  press  who  have  censured  me  most  sharply,  I  understand  one  to  be 
from  Virginia,  one  from  New  Hampshire,  and  one  from  Scotland.  Of  my 
two  fellow-townsmen  as  prominent  as  any  in  opposition,  one  I  learn  to  be  a 
New  Hampshire  man,  and  one  a  West  Indian  from  Cuba.  The  opponent 
who,  of  all  others  in  the  District,  has  dealt  to  me  the  hardest  measure,  also 
came  among  us  from  New  Hampshire.  I  have  always  heard  him  favorably 
spoken  of,  as  a  man  of  character  and  good  feelings ;  and  I  doubt  not  with 
great  justice,  though  to  me  he  has  certainly  been 

“  A  sweet  Bell  jangled,  out  of  tune,  and  harsh.” 

Of  course,  the  hardest  thing  to  bear  in  the  progress  of  these  transactions  has 
been  the  loss  of  old  friends.  Up  to  the  age  of  fifty  years,  I  suppose  very  few 
men  had  more  ;  and  whether  I,  on  my  part,  have  been  constant  in  friend¬ 
ship,  whether  I  have  been  easily  provoked  or  alienated  in  high  party  times, 
or  in  any  times,  let  those  who  have  tried  me  answer.  The  little  slights  and 
affronts  by  which  the  common  associates  of  former  days  find  it  suitable  to  ex¬ 
press  their  disapprobation,  are  disagreeable,  no  doubt ;  but  they  are  not  much 
more.t  The  change  in  friends  of  as  many  years  as  make  up  half  the  recog- 


*  While  these  sheets  are  passing  through  the  press,  another  paper  falls  in  my  way,  in  which 
the  following  quotation  (which  I  shall  verify  before  this  note  is  printed)  is  given  as  an  extract 
from  the  city  paper  above  referred  to,  in  September  last :  — 

”  Mr.  Palfrey  began  his  career  as  a  Free-Soiler,  by  his  famous  resolution  of  ‘  No  union  with 
slaveholders.’  As  our  present  Union,  formed  by  our  revolutionary  and  constitutional  fathers, 
happens  to  consist  of  an  equal  number  of  slaveholding  and  non-slaveholding  States,  what  does 

*  No  union  with  slaveholders ’  mean  but  ‘Dissolve  the  Union’?  We  do  not  see,  starting  as 
he  does  with  l/iis  motto,  why  Mr.  Palfrey  should  tell  the  Abolitionists  that  he  does  not  agree 
with  them,  that  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  is  a  remedy  for  slavery.  If  it  is  not  a  remedy  for 
slavery,  why  proclaim  ‘  No  union  with  slaveholders  ’  ?  ” 

A  resolution  of  “  No  union  with  slaveholders  ”  is  neither  my  “  famous  resolution,”  nor  my 
infamous,  nor  my  obscure  resolution,  nor  my  resolution  at  all.  I  never  offered  it,  in  terms  or 
in  tenor.  The  resolution  of  mine  probably  referred  to  is  that  which  I  have  recited  above  (p. 
9).  It  seemed,  by  the  best  tokens,  to  be  at  that  time  the  resolution  of  Whig  Massachusetts  ; 
and  it  should  have  been,  if  it  was  not. 

t  An  instance  of  the  change  of  sentiment  to  which  I  found  myself  liable,  without  any  thing 
having  occurred  to  disturb  subsisting  friendly  relations,  was  the  following.  There  fell  in  my 
way,  a  while  ago,  a  newspaper  editorial,  in  which  I  found  myself  represented  as  an  “  aspiring 
man  of  little  mind,”  as  having  “earnestly  craved  Whig  support”  when  I  was  nominated  for 

4 


26 


nized  term  of  human  life, —  the  coldness  of  some,  the  separation  from  others, 
the  loud  and  acrimonious  hostility  of  others,  —  is  not  altogether  the  same 
thing.  It  is  pretty  common  for  me  of  late  to  meet  “  hard  unkindness’ 
altered  eye  ”  in  faces  which  from  boyhood  before  never  looked  at  me  but 
with  kindness  and  smiles.  I  have  been  addressed  with  rude  language  in  the 
streets,  when  accosting  some  old  acquaintance.  Persons  whose  youth  I  tried 
to  serve  do  not  recognize  me  as  we  pass.  I  dare  say  it  is  very  manly, 
and  all  that,  to  say  that  one  cares  nothing  about  such  things.  But  that  is  a 
virtue  beyond  my  mark.  I  do  care  for  them,  probably  too  much.  I  care  for 
them  so  much,  that  I  devoutly  thank  God  that  he  did  not  let  me  know  to  the 
full  extent  what  was  coming,  when  I  took  my  course.  Had  I  known  it,  I  hope 
I  should  have  had  the  courage  to  do  precisely  as  I  have  done.  But  no  man 
is  entirely  certain  of  himself ;  and  had  I  fully  seen  what  I  was  incurring,  it  is 
possible  that  I  might  have  flinched.  As  it  is,  I  am  safely  past  the  flinching 
point.  I  have  made  full  trial  of  what  can  be  done  upon  me  in  this  way,  and 
I  find  that,  though  it  is  a  hard  thing  to  bear,  still  it  is  a  possible  one.  Health 
and  spirits  have  stood  a  shock  as  violent  as  any  that,  from  any  like  cause,  will 
probably  try  them  soon  againj  and  they  are  left  in  living  and  working  con¬ 
dition.  Fortified  and  made  confident  by  the  trial,  as  I  could  have  been  by 
nothing  else,  I  am  able  to  assure  friends  and  enemies,  that,  whether  in  pub¬ 
lic  or  in  private  station,  I  expect  to  do  what  I  think  my  duty  as  to  public 
affairs,  unmoved  by  considerations  of  personal  fear  or  favor.  My  traducers 
cannot  “  defeat”  me  (as  I  interpret  the  word),  till  they  have  brought  me  to 
some  concession  ;  and  this  I  have  been  led  to  a  pretty  strong  persuasion  that 
they  are  little  likely  to  do.  And  I  find  myself  able  to  apprise  those  of  my  old 
friends  who  have  done  with  me,  that  —  well  as  I  have  loved  them,  and  how 
well  that  was,  let  them  judge  —  there  is  not  a  man  of  them,  whom,  if  they 
were  mine  again,  I  would  not  alienate  to-morrow,  if  the  price  of  retaining 
them  was  to  be  a  departure  from  what  I  take  to  be  right  and  duty.  I  am 
to  keep  my  own  respect,  at  all  events.  Whether  —  that  point  fixed — they 
will  be  friends  or  strangers,  is  a  matter  not  for  me  to  settle. 

It  would  be  very  foolish  to  expect  to  get  at  once  the  satisfactions  of  inde¬ 
pendent  action  and  the  rewards  of  compliance.  But,  by  a  rule  laid  deep  in 
the  nature  of  things,  it  is  determined  that  the  former  should  be  far  the  better 
of  the  two.  And  in  my  own  humble  case,  they  do  not  stand  alone ;  for  I  am 
not  only  conscious  that  my  much-berated  course  was  an  upright  one;  I  have 
b«ten  already  permitted  to  see  that  it  was  also  very  useful.  When  I  trace 
the  present  condition  and  prospects  of  our  Pacific  empire  to  the  wide  popu¬ 
lar  movement  for  Freedom  in  1848,* *  and  this  in  part  to  the  action  of  the 


Congress,  and  as  having  been  guilty  of  “Judas-like  conduct,”  with  the  addition  of  other  oppro¬ 
brious  language.  Above  the  article  stands  the  editor’s  name,  and  it  is  the  same  name  which, 
on  the  24th  of  December,  1847,  after  the  “Judas-like  conduct”  complained  of,  namely,  my 
vote  in  the  election  of  Speaker,  was  subscribed  to  a  letter  of  which  the  following  is  the  con¬ 
cluding  sentence: — 

“  I  have  many  faults,  but,  if  I  know  my  own  heart,  a  lack  of  gratitude  is  not  among  them  ; 
and  when  you  count  those  friends  upon  whose  services  you  have  a  just  claim,  do  not,  I  pray 
you,  omit  among  the  most  humble,  yet  the  most  devoted, 

“  Very  respectfully,  - .” 

*  The  effect  of  the  Buffalo  Convention  on  the  action  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  Au¬ 
gust,  1848,  was  one  of  the  most  magnificent  results  in  history.  The  influence  of  that  series  of 
movements  in  introducing  a  free  population  into  California,  and  the  slavery  restriction  princi- 


27 


first  session  of  the  Thirtieth  Congress,  and  this  again,  in  part,  to  the  effect  of 
the  opening  scene  of  that  Congress,  I  come  to  the  conclusion  that  some  of  us 
did  not  go  to  Washington  in  December,  1847, for  nothing;  and  I  shall  live  and 
die  in  the  happy  belief  of  having  been  an  humble  instrument  in  the  hand  of 
Providence  to  do  something  towards  saving  the  vast  regions  yet  to  be  peopled 
at  the  West  from  the  unspeakable  shame  and  curse  of  slavery. 

I  am  not  now  writing  to  the  voters  of  the  Fourth  District.  But  some  words 
of  Burke  to  the  electors  of  Bristol  are  so  far  applicable  to  my  present  purpose, 
that  I  will  conclude  with  quoting  them. 

“  And  now,  Gentlemen,  on  this  serious  day,  when  I  come,  as  it  were,  to 
make  up  my  account  with  you,  let  me  take  to  myself  some  degree  of  honest 
pride  on  the  nature  of  the  charges  that  are  against  me.  I  do  not  here  stand 
before  you  accused  of  venality,  or  of  neglect  of  duty.  It  is  not  said  that,  in 
the  long  period  of  my  service,  I  have,  in  a  single  instance,  sacrificed  the  slight¬ 
est  of  your  interests  to  my  ambition,  or  to  my  fortune.  It  is  not  alleged,  that, 
to  gratify  any  anger  or  revenge  of  my  own,  or  of  my  party,  I  have  had  a  share 
in  wronging  or  oppressing  any  description  of  men,  or  any  one  man  in  any  de¬ 
scription.  No !  the  charges  against  me  are  all  of  one  kind,  that  I  have  pushed 
the  principles  of  general  justice  and  benevolence  too  far ;  farther  than  a  cau¬ 
tious  policy  would  warrant ;  and  farther  than  the  opinions  of  many  would  go 
along  with  me.  In  every  accident  which  may  happen  through  life,  —  in  pain, 
in  sorrow,  in  depression  and  distress,  —  I  w’ill  call  to  mind  this  accusation,  and 
be  comforted.” 

I  am,  dear  Sir, 

Faithfully  your  friend. 


pie  into  its  constitution,  has  been  largely  and  truly  set  forth  in  the  speeches  of  Southern 
members  of  *the  present  Congress;  among  others,  in  those  of  Mr.  Seddon  of  Virginia  and  Mr. 
Clingman  of  North  Carolina,  in  the  early  part  of  the  session. 


NOTE  (see  page  14). 

The  following  Resolves  represent  the  sense  of  the  Commonwealth  as  expressed  by  the  last 
General  Court  held  before  I  went  to  Washington.  They  were  the  certified  creed  of  the  State 
which  I  represented.  The  first  series  were  passed  February  27th,  1347 ;  the  last,  April  26th, 
1847 ;  which  was  the  last  day  that  the  Legislature  had  been  in  session  before  I  took  my  seat  in 
Congress.  It  would  hardly,  I  thought,  have  been  acting  up  to  the  spirit  of  these  Resolves 
to  help  give  a  proslavery  organization  of  Committees  to  the  Congress  House  of  Representatives. 

“  Resolved,  unanimously,  That  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  views  the  existence  of  hu¬ 
man  slavery  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States  as  a  great  calamity,  an  immense  moral  and 
political  evil,  which  ought  to  be  abolished,  as  soon  as  that  end  can  be  properly  and  constitu¬ 
tionally  attained,  and  that  its  extension  should  be  uniformly  and  earnestly  opposed  by  all  good 
and  patriotic  men  throughout  the  Union. 

“  Resolved,  unanimously,  That  the  people  of  Massachusetts  will  strenuously  resist  the  an¬ 
nexation  of  any  new  territory  to  this  Union,  in  which  the  institution  of  slavery  is  to  be  tol¬ 
erated  or  established;  and  the  Legislature,  in  behalf  of  the  people  of  this  Commonwealth,  do 
hereby  solemnly  protest  against  the  acquisition  of  any  additional  territory,  without  an  express 
provision  by  Otngress  that  there  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  such  ter¬ 
ritory,  otherwi.se  than  for  the  punishment  of  crime.” 


^‘Resolved,  That  the  present  war  with  Mexico  has  its  primary  origin  in  the  unconstitutional 
annexation  to  the  United  States  of  the  foreign  State  of  Texas ;  th.at  it  was  unconstitutionally 
commenced  by  the  order  of  the  President  to  General  Taylor,  to  take  military  jtossession  of 
territory  in  dispute  between  the  United  .States  and  Mexico,  and  in  the  occupation  of  Mexico; 


28 


and  that  it  is  now  waged  by  a  powerful  nation  against  a  weak  neighbour,  unnecessarily  and 
without  just  cause,  at  immense  cost  of  treasure  and  life,  for  the  dismemberment  of  Mexico, 
and  for  the  conquest  of  a  portion  of  her  territory,  from  which  slavery  has  already  been  ex¬ 
cluded,  with  the  triple  object  of  extending  slavery,  of  strengthening  the  slave  power,  and  of 
obtaining  the  control  of  the  Free  States,  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

“  Resolved,  That  such  a  war  of  conquest,  so  hateful  in  its  objects,  so  wanton,  unjust,  and  un¬ 
constitutional  in  its  origin  and  character,  must  be  regarded  as  a  war  against  freedom,  against 
humanity,  against  justice,  against  the  Union,  against  the  Constitution,  and  against  the  Free 
States ;  and  that  a  regard  for  the  true  interests  and  highest  honor  of  the  country,  not  less  than 
the  impulses  of  Christian  duty,  should  ai'ouse  all  good  citizens  to  join  in  efforts  to  arrest  this 
war,  and  in  every  just  way  to  aid  the  country  to  retire  from  the  position  of  aggression  which 
it  now  occupies  towards  a  weak,  distracted  neighbour,  and  sister  republic. 

1  “  Resolved, Thalonr  attention  is  directed  aiiew  to  the  “  wrong  and  enormity  ”  of  slavery,  and 
to  the  tyranny  and  usurpation  of  the  “  slave  power,”  as  displayed  in  the  history  of  our  coun¬ 
try,  particularly  in  the  annexation  of  Texas  and  the  present  war  with  Mexico ;  and  that  we 
are  impressed  with  the  unalterable  conviction,  that  a  regard  for  the  fair  fame  of  our  country, 
for  the  principles  of  morals,  and  for  that  righteousness  which  exalteth  a  nation,  sanctions  and 
requires  all  constitutional  efforts  for  the  destruction  of  the  unjust  influence  of  the  slave  powen 
and  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States.” 


